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White-headed Duck

A species of Stiff-tailed ducks
Scientific name : Oxyura leucocephala Genus : Stiff-tailed ducks

White-headed Duck, A species of Stiff-tailed ducks
Botanical name: Oxyura leucocephala
Genus: Stiff-tailed ducks
White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala) Photo By Vince Smith , used under CC-BY-2.0 /Cropped and compressed from original

Description

Adult males have a grey and reddish body, a blue bill and a largely white head with a black cap and neck. Adult females have a grey-brown body with a white face and a darker bill, cap, and cheek stripe. Length is 43–48 cm (17–19 in) and weight is 580–750 g (1.28–1.65 lb).
Size
48 cm
Feeding Habits
White-headed Duck primarily consume aquatic plants, but are omnivorous. They dive and swim underwater to forage and prefer swimming to flying to escape threats. White-headed Duck showcase unique reluctance for flight as a defensive behavior.
Habitat
White-headed Duck thrives in diverse wetland environments, favoring both natural and artificial settings that may fluctuate with seasons. Adaptations for brackish and saline waters, such as specialized salt-excreting glands, indicate a propensity for ecosystems where fresh and salty waters merge. The species' habitats span broad, unspecified geographical wetland regions.
Dite type
Omnivorous

General Info

Distribution Area

This duck breeds in Spain and North Africa, with a larger population in western and central Asia. Their breeding habitat is large tracts of open water, such as lakes and ponds including artificial water bodies, with dense stands of aquatic plants to provide shelter and nesting sites. Individuals are fairly frequently reported well north of their breeding range, but as with many wildfowl, the status of these extralimital records is clouded by the possibility of escapes from collections.

Species Status

This duck is considered endangered due to a large reduction in populations in the last 10 years. Most of this decline is due to habitat loss and hunting, but interbreeding of the Spanish population with the introduced ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) is a more recent threat. This has led to the attempted eradication of the American species from western Europe. The white-headed duck is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the bird's conservation status as being "endangered".
White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala) White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala) Photo By Vince Smith , used under CC-BY-2.0 /Cropped and compressed from original

Scientific Classification

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