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Hardhead

A species of Diving ducks, Also known as White-eyed Duck
Scientific name : Aythya australis Genus : Diving ducks

Hardhead, A species of Diving ducks
Also known as:
White-eyed Duck
Botanical name: Aythya australis
Genus: Diving ducks
Hardhead (Aythya australis) Photo By silversea_starsong , used under CC-BY-NC-4.0 /Cropped and compressed from original

Description

The hardhead (Aythya australis) (also white-eyed duck) is the only true diving duck found in Australia. Hardheads are common in the south-east of Australia, particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin, but also in the wetter country near the coasts. They are moderately nomadic in normal years, but disperse widely in times of drought. Significant numbers reach as far afield as New Guinea, New Zealand, and the islands of the Pacific, where they can remain for some time, even breeding for a season or two. Like the other members of the pochard group, hardheads feed by diving deeply, often staying submerged for as long as a minute at a time. They slip under the water with barely a ripple, simply lowering their heads and thrusting with their powerful webbed feet. They eat a broad range of small aquatic creatures, and supplement this with water weeds. Hardheads prefer larger lakes, swamps and rivers with deep, still water, but are often seen in smaller streams, flooded grasslands, and shallow pools. As a general rule, they avoid coastal waters. They rarely come to land and never perch in trees. Hardheads are small by duck standards, usually not much more than 45 cm long but reaching 60 cm sometimes, and noticeably more rounded in overall form than most ducks. Both male and female are a fairly uniform chocolate-brown above, with rufous flanks and white undersides (which are often not visible if the duck is in the water). The trailing edges and almost the entire underside of the wings are white. In the male, the eyes are a striking white, in the female, brown.
Size
49 cm
Colors
Brown
Black
Bronze
White
Life Expectancy
4.8 years
Feeding Habits
Hardhead primarily consume small aquatic animals and supplement their diet with water plants. They forage by diving and have unique adaptations for an aquatic diet. Their feeding aligns with the availability of prey.
Habitat
Hardhead typically inhabits freshwater environments which include large deep-water lakes, swamps, and rivers rich in emergent vegetation. They frequent diverse wetlands, ranging from smaller streams and flooded grasslands to shallow pools, showing a preference for still waters away from the coast. Beyond the breeding season, hardhead can also be found in artificial water bodies like sewage lagoons, as well as naturally saline habitats such as coastal and inland salt lakes, coastal lagoons, mountain lakes at altitudes up to 1150 m, and occasionally mangrove swamps and inshore waters. While hardhead display a degree of nomadism, especially during droughts when they disperse widely, they generally avoid terrestrial habitats like pastures, except when feeding.
Dite type
Aquatic invertebrate eater

General Info

Species Status

Not globally threatened.
Hardhead (Aythya australis) Hardhead (Aythya australis) Photo By silversea_starsong , used under CC-BY-NC-4.0 /Cropped and compressed from original

Scientific Classification

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