Red Crested Pochard

Distribution

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.

Diet

Red-crested pochards feed mainly on the roots, seeds, and vegetative parts of aquatic plants, and sometimes supplement their diet with aquatic invertebrates, amphibians, mollusks, tadpoles, or small fish.

Information

The adult male is unmistakable. It has a rounded orange head, red bill and black breast. The flanks are white, the back brown, and the tail black. The female is mainly a pale brown, with a darker back and crown and a whitish face. Eclipse males are like females but with red bills. They are gregarious birds, forming large flocks in winter, often mixed with other diving ducks, such as common pochards.

Red Crested Pochard

Other birds