Tufted Duck

The tufted duck is a small diving duck found in northern Eurasia, with a population of nearly a million birds. The adult male is all black except for white flanks and a blue-grey bill with golden-yellow eyes and a thin crest on the back of the head. The female is brown with lighter flanks and is more easily confused with other diving ducks, some having white around the base of the bill like the scaups (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds throughout temperate and northern Eurasia and is migratory in most of its range, overwintering in the milder south and west of Europe and in southern Asia. The clutch is eight to eleven greenish-grey eggs, incubated by the female for about 25 days, and the young are precocial. The female's call is a harsh, growling karr, usually given in flight.