by Eric Buckingham

Created on: April 18, 2008   Last Updated: February 08, 2010

The Barrow's Goldeneye is fifteen to twenty inches in length on average. Their wingspan is around thirty to thirty three inches in length, and can weigh anywhere from 21 ounces and up. This type of duck has a quite large head along with a chunky body. The males can be spotted easily by looking for a white circle on their face a white and black head and most of all a big white patch that runs along the base of their wing span that can be seen easily during flight. The females will tend to be a bit smaller than the male and have a gray head with a brownish tan body where the males are black and white so they are really easy to tell apart from one another. When these birds are breeding their colors will differ slightly than when they are not breeding.

The eyes of a Common Goldeneye are very cool and when they are first brought into this world they are gray-brown in color. Then they will turn purple-blue, then blue, then green-blue as they age and get older and mature.When this duck reaches the ripe old age of five months the eyes will then become clear pale green-yellow. The eyes will be bright yellow in adult males and pale yellow to white in females that to me is really fascinating.

This breed is completely silent until it is time to breed then the males will get noisy with their wings by making a whistling noise while in flight. When it comes to chow time they are known as excellent divers as they dive to the bottom of the water in order to catch prey for there meals. They do build nest in trees or heavily wooded areas and can lay anywhere from as little as five eggs to as much as fifteen. The mama will sometimes lay eggs in other nest besides her own and the mom also lines the nest with feathers from her chest area.

The babies will grow up quickly and start to leave the comfort of the nest after only two days. The baby is referred to as a brood and can feed themselves but do require some protection from the more mature ducks. Sometimes the ducks will fight over territory and when this happens not all the babies will make it back to the nest or mama that they came from. These are wonderful animals too learn about and watch in there natural surroundings.

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