Ferruginous duck

Ferruginous duck
Aythya nyroca, Guldenstadt, 1770

It is our smallest diving duck. This species does not occur anywhere in large numbers; individual couples nest quite far from each other. It is a rather secretive and cautious bird. These ducks usually inhabit eutrophic lakes (less than 1 metre deep, with rich vegetation), ponds, swamps, islands and shores. In Poland this species was very numerous in the 1940s, especially in the East. Currently the breeding population is very small, amounting to 70–100 pairs in the whole country, most often occurring in the South-East and West. Some specimens have also been observed wintering in Poland.
Distribution: from Western Europe to Western Mongolia, from Libya to Pakistan

male / female
body length: 38–42 cm
wingspan: 60–67 cm
body mass: 0,45–0,65 kg