Fun Tufted Duck Facts For Kids

The tufted duck (Aythya fuligula) is a type of diving duck found in the regions of northern Eurasia, Africa, and North America. They are a migratory species and they belong to the family Anatidae which consists of ducks, geese, and swans.

They are commonly found in freshwater, wetlands, lakes, and reservoirs. During the breeding season, tufted ducks tend to be found close to marshes to cover their nests. They are called tufted ducks because they have a unique tuft on their heads.

The tufted duck is medium-sized with short bodies and large heads. The tufted duck male has a black plumage, golden-yellow eyes, gray-blue bill, and white flanks. The female tufted duck is mostly brown in color with pale flanks.

Male tufted ducks are quieter than the female and make soft sounds like 'wit-oo'. Females are very shrill making harsh 'Karrr' sounds. They have a length of 16-18 in (40.6-45.7 cm).

People often get confused between other species of diving ducks, for example, scaup or ring-necked ducks. An easy way to distinguish between them is that scaups and ring-necked ducks do not have head tufts and have different bird calls.

You may also check out the fact files on Muscovy duck and harlequin duck from Kidadl.

Tufted Duck Interesting Facts

What type of animal is a tufted duck?

Tufted ducks are a type of aquatic migratory duck found in the regions of northern Eurasia, Europe, North America, and Africa. These large birds are called this because of their unique duck tufted head.

What class of animal does a tufted duck belong to?

The tufted duck (Aythya fuligula) is a migratory species belonging to kingdom Animalia, class Aves, family Anatidae, genus Aythya. The family Anatidae also consists of ducks, geese, and swans.

How many tufted ducks are there in the world?

In the IUCN Red List, tufted ducks have the conservation status of Least Concern. This species is not threatened or in any danger of extinction. They could be affected by increasing levels of water pollution and habitat loss due to human interactions in the future. At this time, they have a good population in the world.

Where does a tufted duck live?

Tufted ducks are found in freshwater, wetlands, towns, and gardens. They are found in the regions of northern Eurasia, Europe, North America, and Africa. They are also found in lakes, reservoirs, or flooded gravel pits.

Their distribution depends on their breeding season and their habitat is close to marshes where there is more vegetation. Other than these regions, they are also found along shorelines, lagoons, and sheltered ponds. During the winter months, they are found in southern Europe, South Asia, and some areas through North America.

What is a tufted duck's habitat?

Tufted ducks are an aquatic bird population that is always found near water. Their habitat is in freshwater regions and wetlands. They are found along shorelines, lagoons, ponds, shallow lakes, and reservoirs. In the breeding season, they tend to stay close to marshes with thick vegetation to protect their eggs and young from predators.

They are a migratory bird species and their behavior and distribution differ depending on the season. During the winter months, they are found in southern Europe, South Asia, and some areas throughout North America.

They tend to stay in shallow waterbodies in the breeding season, in waters that are between 9.8-16.4 ft (3-5 m) deep. During winters they are found in marshes, lakes, estuaries, and man-made ponds. In the migratory season, they are found along rivers.

Who do tufted ducks live with?

Tufted ducks are social birds during the migration season in winter, and in non-breeding seasons. The duck male population gets defensive of their territories during the breeding season.

Groups of tufted ducks can be seen gathering in shallow waters, ponds, and rivers in winter. During the winter months, they are found in southern Europe, South Asia, and some areas throughout North America.

How long does a tufted duck live?

The average lifespan of a tufted duck is in the range of four years.

How do they reproduce?

Tufted ducks, unlike some other bird populations, breed once a year only. They are monogamous which means they will have only one partner during the breeding cycle. Adult tufted ducks form pairs during the spring migration season and they remain together until early July. Their breeding and reproductive behavior are similar to that of other diving ducks.

A duck male will try to impress the females by showing off. The showing-off process of these birds includes dipping, which is a form of swimming together and dipping their bills in and out of the water.

Another example is the neck stretch. The male bird swims fast past the female and stretches its neck as far as possible and holds it there. Some other behaviors are nod swimming, head throw, and preening behind the wing.

The breeding season is between May to August, with most activity in the months of May to July. Both male and female birds start to search for nest sites along open waters.

During this time, the females swim into flooded areas to scope the location, while males stand guard against predators. The birds search for nest areas that are generally near-surface water with thick vegetation. This helps cover their nests from the view of predators.

Once the site is decided, the female constructs the nest in a week’s time. The female uses feathers and grass to build a nest in a bowl shape.

The female tufted duck lays anywhere in the range of 8-11 eggs during the breeding season. Eggs are oval in shape and olive-brown or olive-gray in color. Females begin to incubate the eggs and this lasts between 26-27 days. Once the eggs hatching is complete, they are fully covered in feathers.

A baby duck tufted is called a chick. Fledglings become independent shortly after hatching by following their parents and feeding themselves. Reproductive maturity in tufted ducks is attained within the age of one year.

Young tufted ducks can feed themselves at this age, but rely on surface foods. These are foods found on the surface of marshes or other surfaces of water bodies in their habitat.

What is their conservation status?

Tufted ducks in the IUCN Red List are categorized as Least Concern. This is because they are currently found widely across the world in wetlands, lakes, estuaries, and ponds. If current levels of human intervention and pollution continue, the feeding habitat of this bird could be under threat.

Tufted Duck Fun Facts

What does a tufted duck look like?

Tufted ducks are a migratory aquatic species of diving ducks. They belong to the family Anatidae which consists of ducks, geese and swan populations. They are called tufted ducks because of their signature head tufts. This tuft sets them apart from other species of tufted ducks such as the scaup.

Tufted ducks are short-bodied diving ducks that are medium sized. They have blue-gray bills, golden-yellow eyes, and a thin white stripe of fur on its head. Both males and females have the signature head tufts.

Male tufted ducks are larger than females and are a solid black color with white flanks and white underbellies. Female tufted ducks are brown in color with dark yellow flanks, a smaller tuft, and a white underbelly.

Sometimes, females and non-breeding males do not have tufts at all. Both males and females have an average wingspan of 27.5 in (70 cm).

How cute are they?

Tufted ducks are medium-sized, aquatic, diving ducks with a signature head tuft. They are known for their head tufts which is like a slicked-back hairdo. This unique among other species of diving ducks and gives the population a unique look.  

How do they communicate?

Tufted ducks often communicate during the breeding season to make warning calls and during migration in winter. Both males and females make sounds, but the females are much louder than the tufted ducks male. Some sounds they make are 'korr korr korr', 'karr karr', 'pjuu-uu', 'ahrrr', and 'wit-oo'.

How big is a tufted duck?

Tufted ducks are an aquatic, medium-sized species of diving duck. They belong to the family Anatidae which consists of ducks, geese, and swans. Males tend to be bigger than the female. They have a length in the range of 15.9-17.9 in (40.6-45.7 cm). Their size and features are comparable to other species of ducks such as the scaup.

How fast can a tufted duck swim?

Tufted ducks are good swimmers as they are an aquatic diving duck, usually found close to water bodies. They are excellent divers too. They can swim fast, especially when startled. Male tufted ducks also swim rapidly to impress females during the breeding season.

How much does a tufted duck weigh?

Males have an average weight in the range of 1.9 lb (889.6 g) while females are smaller in the range of 1.6 lb (768.3 g).

What are the male and female names of the species?

A tufted duck male is called a drake and tufted duck females are called hens.

What would you call a baby tufted duck?

Baby tufted ducks, similar to the young of other birds, are called fledglings or chicks.

What do they eat?

Tufted ducks are omnivorous by nature. Their food habits consist of a diet of mollusks, zebra mussels, aquatic insects, plants, leaves, stems, and roots.

Are they dangerous?

These duck tufted birds are not particularly dangerous to humans.

Would they make a good pet?

The behavior of tufted ducks can make them good pets and they are generally docile by nature. If you want to keep these as pets, make sure to always have enough water. They have to be brought up around water because they are an open-water aquatic species.

Did you know...

The scientific name for tufted duck, Aythya fuligula, comes from the Latin words,'fuligo', meaning 'soot' and 'gula', meaning 'throat'. There have been references to this bird in the works of Hesychius and Aristotle.

The Mandarin duck is considered the prettiest duck in the world while America's rarest duck is the American black duck.

The bufflehead duck has a white stripe that goes around the back of its head making for easy identification!

How deep can tufted ducks dive?

Tufted ducks are a type of aquatic, medium-sized diving ducks. They can dive into waters as deep as 50 ft (15.2 m) while searching for mollusks, plants, and other food.

What is the average number of ducklings tufted ducks have annually?

Tufted ducks have a single brood per year and per brood, there is an average of 8-11 eggs. The breeding season for these birds is between May and August with peak activity in the duration of mid-May to mid-July.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other birds from our swan facts and cockatiel facts pages.

You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable duck wearing bow tie coloring pages.