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| Wetlands & Waterfowl's Guide to North American Waterfowl: | |||
| Click to load: American Bittern American Widgeon Black- Crowned Night Heron Black Duck Blue-Winged Teal Canada Goose Canvasback Cattle Egret Common Egret Cinnamon Teal Gadwall Great Blue Heron Great Egret Green-Winged Teal Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Mallard Mute Swan, Northern Pintail Northern Shoveler Redhead Ring-Necked Snowy Egret Snow Goose Trumpeter Swan Wood Duck |
Canvasback Scroll down for details  Scientific Name: Aythya
valisineria Habitat: ponds, lakes, marshes and bays Appearance: 19-24" long. Stocky, with sloping bill profile. Birds are usually seen in flocks. Male: rusty head and neck, black bill, black breast, white body. Female: Brown head, grey back. Food: Mainly roots and tubers of aquatic plants. Nesting: Nest is a solid cup of grass and stems, which is lined with down. Nest is concealed in tall weedsor grasses near water. Female lays 7-12 greenish eggs and incubates for 24-27 days. Young are downy, leave the nest soon after hatching and fly at around 11 weeks. |
The Canvasback duck can be found gathering in huge rafts- close groupings of birds afloat on the water- on their coastal and inland wintering grounds. There they feed, rest and sleep, far from the shore. In recent years, the canvasback population has fallen sharply. This decline is due in part to overhunting; but far more damaging is the draining of the northern marshes in which the Canvasback usually nests. | |