Common pochard
The common pochard (/ˈpɒtʃə(r)d/) (Aythya ferina) is a medium-sized diving duck.
Description
The adult male has a long dark bill with a grey band, a red head and neck, a black breast, red eyes and a grey back. The adult female has a brown head and body and a narrower grey bill-band. The triangular head shape is distinctive. Pochards are superficially similar to the closely related North American redhead and canvasback.
Females give hoarse growls. Males have whistles cut off by a final nasal note aaoo-oo-haa.
Distribution and habitat
Their breeding habitat consists of marshes and lakes with a metre or more water depth. Pochards breed in much of temperate and northern Europe into Asia. They are migratory, and spend winter in the southern and west of Europe.
In the British Isles, birds breed in eastern England and lowland Scotland, in small numbers in Northern Ireland with numbers increasing gradually, and sporadically in the Republic of Ireland, where it may also be increasing. Large numbers stay overwinter in Great Britain, after the birds retreat from Russia and Scandinavia.