White-headed Duck

Oxyura leucocephala (Scopoli, 1769)

45 cmLength66 cmWingspan661 gWeight

This small diving duck has a white head with a black cap and a blue bill in the male.

Busiest months: April · Most records: Spain, Türkiye, Israel

Endangered

How to identify

Field marks

Male has a mostly white head with a black cap
Male has a blue bill
Male has a gray body mixed with red
Female gray-brown, with a dark cheek stripe on a white face

Male, female and young

Female has a dark bill and duller plumage than male.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: April · Most records: Spain, Türkiye, Israel

White-headed Duck has been recorded at 174 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 32 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

To protect this bird from disturbance, we don't list exact sites.

Countries and regions with the most records

Spain Türkiye Israel Morocco Kazakhstan Armenia China Greece

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 white-headed duck (Oxyura leucocephala) is a small diving duck some 45 cm (18 in) long. The male has a white head with black crown, a blue bill, and reddish-grey plumage. The female has a dark bill and rather duller colouring.

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

Questions

How big is the White-headed Duck?

The White-headed Duck is about 45 cm long, with a wingspan of 66 cm and weighs around 661 g.

Where does the White-headed Duck live?

Its breeding range: Palearctic: southern Europe and northern Africa to Central Asia and northwestern China. It is most often recorded in Spain, Türkiye and Israel.