Appearance:

Seldom seen, often heard. Very small, compact bird with secretive behaviour. Heavily striated brown upperparts and paler belly. Males with black throat or black throat-band. Only the male shows different pale or rufous morphs. Appears long-winged when flying, with a straight and low line of flight.

Sound:

Song a very characteristic, short, tri-syllabic whistling, with each syllable ending with a sharp rise in pitch "weet weet-weet". The two last syllable linked together. Other sounds: A nasal disyllabic mewing "mau-au", and a wader-like rolling "wreee".

Song:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Appearance:

Shape resembles both diving and dabbling ducks. Characteristic head profile with long bill, long sloping forehead and rather high rear crown (not unlike Pochard). White undertail usually visible also when on the water. Broad, white wing-bars and white underwing conspicous in flight. White undertail separated from white belly by brown band. Male with shining white eyes. Female with brown eye and less bright rufous tones to plumage. Immature similar to female, but with even less rufous. Immatures told from immature Pochard by by darker back, no facial markings and white (not grey) wing-bars. Note that Tufted Duck sometimes have white (but more diffuse) undertail. Beware also of hybrids with Pochard (note bill-pattern).

Sound:

Female call similar to female Tufted Duck's "kerr kerr", but thinner and with a strong, peculiar bi-tone. Male display call mostly consists of various short "chk" sounds.

Female:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

CC

CC-sound:Jarek Matusiak, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:Linton Snapper, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:Radovan Václav, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:darwin_initiative, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:Frank.Vassen, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:Koshyk, Licence,Link.