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page.Pochard
Aythya ferina
This is a very common diving duck with a widespread distribution embracing all of eastern, central and northwestern Europe including England. In Scandinavia it occurs only in the eastern parts of Sweden and Finland and in southernmost Norway. Where the climate is mild, pochard are resident or dispersive, whereas birds inhabiting northern and eastern Europe winter in the Mediterranean, and sometimes central Europe, where they form flocks on large, unfrozen rivers and lakes. Departure for winter quarters is in September to mid-November, the return from mid-March to early April. Favourite haunts are inland lakes and ponds bordered by thick vegetation. Although birds pair in their winter quarters they arrive at the breeding grounds in flocks. The nest is built by the female on the ground among vegetation near the water. The hollow is fairly deep and lined with bits of vegetation and thick, dark-coloured down. A clutch consists of five to 11 eggs, which the duck incubates alone for 23 to 26 days. The ducklings are led out on the water by the duck the day they hatch. Diet consists of the green parts of aquatic plants as well as seeds; plant food predominates but the young, and occasionally the adults, also take crustaceans, molluscs, insects and their larvae, other invertebrates and sometimes tadpoles.
Click on any of the other bird links, these are Geese Barnacle Goose : Brent Goose : Canada Goose : Greylag Goose
Or on the Ducks: Gadwall : Goldeneye : Goosander : Mallard : Pintail : Pochard : Red Breasted Merganser : Red Crested Pochard : Shellduck : Shoveler : Teal : Tufted Duck : Wigeon
And the rest, in no real order of importance: Common Sandpiper : Coot. : Corncrake : Curlew. : Dunlin : Greenshank : Lapwing : Moorhen : Oystercatcher : Redshank : Ringed Plover : Snipe : Spotted Crake : Stone Curlew : Turnstone : Whimbrel : Woodcock.
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