Bufflehead

The Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) is North America's smallest diving duck, easily recognized by its energetic behavior and strikingly oversized, bulbous head. Its common name is a contraction of "buffalo head," referring to the male's puffy, crested appearance. Exceptionally active and constantly diving for food, these ducks travel in small, tight-knit flocks during the winter months. Unlike many other diving ducks, Buffleheads are agile enough to take off directly from the water's surface without a long running start. They are highly dependent on healthy boreal forest ecosystems for nesting, particularly the abandoned cavities of woodpeckers.

Identifying Buffleheads is relatively straightforward due to their distinct silhouettes and high-contrast plumage.

Adult Male

• Head: Large, puffy, and iridescent green and purple. A broad, wedge-shaped white patch starts behind the eye and wraps around the back of the crown.
• Body: Billiard-ball white breast, belly, and flanks, contrasting sharply with a jet-black back.
• Eyes & Bill: Dark brown eyes and a small, bluish-gray bill.

Adult Female & Immatures

• Plumage: Overall drab, grayish-brown body with a slightly darker brown back.
• Head: Slightly less puffy than the male's, dark brown with a very distinctive, horizontal oval white patch on the cheek below and behind the eye.
• Bill: Dark gray and small.

Similar Species

• Hooded Merganser: Males have a black-bordered creased crest and brown flanks rather than pure white flanks. They also have a much thinner, serrated bill. Females have a bushy, cinnamon-colored crest.
• Goldeneyes: Considerably larger ducks with a smaller white facial patch (circular or crescent-shaped in front of the eye, rather than a large wedge on the back of the head).

Breeding Range The primary breeding grounds of the Bufflehead span the boreal forests and aspen parklands of Canada and Alaska. They nest exclusively near freshwater lakes and ponds that are bordered by mature forests, as they require cavities for nesting.

Wintering Range In the autumn, Buffleheads migrate southwards and towards the coasts. They winter along both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America, extending down into the Gulf of Mexico, as well as on inland reservoirs, large rivers, and unfrozen lakes throughout the United States.

Habitat Preferences During the winter, they favor shallow, sheltered saltwater and brackish bays, estuaries, and river mouths where food is abundant and waters are relatively calm.

Foraging and Diet Buffleheads are persistent divers, disappearing underwater with a quick, neat plunge. They forage in shallow waters, typically less than 4 meters deep. While underwater, they compress their feathers to squeeze out air and use their webbed feet for propulsion. In freshwater habitats, their diet consists primarily of aquatic insects such as dragonfly larvae and midge pupae. In marine wintering grounds, they transition to eating small crustaceans, snails, and bivalves.

Nesting and Breeding These ducks are strictly cavity-nesters, almost entirely reliant on old cavities excavated by Northern Flickers, and occasionally Pileated Woodpeckers. Because they are the smallest diving ducks, they can fit into holes that are too small for competing cavity-nesters like Goldeneyes and Wood Ducks. Females are highly philopatric, often returning to the exact same nest tree or cavity year after year.

Vocalizations Buffleheads are generally silent during the winter. During the spring courtship season, males will produce squeaking or growling notes when performing displays, while females respond with a soft, guttural quack or chattering call when selecting a nest site.