Red-crested Pochard

How to identify

Field marks

1. Male has a round, orange head
2. Male has a red bill
3. Male has a black breast and white flanks
4. Male has a rufous back and black tail

Male, female and young

Female pale rufous with a darker back and crown, and whitish face; molting male resembles female, but has a red bill.

Voice

Male gives a wheezing “veht”; female gives a series of harsh “vrah-vrah-vrah” calls.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: April–May · Most records: Spain, United Kingdom, India

Red-crested Pochard has been recorded at 1,035 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 79 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Marjal dels Moros – ÁreaSpain1,721 records
2. Laguna de la VeguillaSpain1,661 records
3. Dehesa de AbajoSpain1,571 records

Countries and regions with the most records

SpainUnited KingdomIndiaGermanySwitzerlandCzechiaPortugalFrance

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The red-crested pochard (Netta rufina) is a large diving duck. The scientific name is derived from Greek Netta "duck", and Latin rufina, "golden-red" (from rufus, "ruddy"). Its breeding habitat is lowland marshes and lakes in southern Europe and it extends from the steppe and semi-desert areas on the Black Sea to Central Asia and Mongolia, wintering in the Indian subcontinent and Africa.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions