Tag Archives: Bucephala clangula

The Anything But Common, Common Goldeneye

1 Reply

Why is Common the first name of so many beautiful birds?! Common Goldeneye, Common Grackle, Common Loon, Common Murre, Common Merganser, Common Kestrel… the list is endless and annoying. Perhaps in some regions the bird in question is common however, when seen in other regions it may not be.

While here visiting our shores, this striking male Common Goldeneye has been spending his days deep diving for  vegetation and, for the most part, keeping to himself and avoiding the larger Mallards. I am rather glad to see he is not very social. Hopefully l he won’t catch the avian flu.

At around nine seconds you can see the Common Goldeneye with a male Hooded Merganser in the foreground and a female Lesser Scaup in the background.

GOLDENEYE EYES

Leave a reply

Good Morning Mr. Goldeneye!

How fortunate to see this beautiful male Goldeneye resting in the tide pools. Typically, I see them out at sea and rarely catch a glimpse of their bright orange legs and feet.

Golden Eyes (Bucephala clangula) are cousins of Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola). The genus name Bucephala is derived from the  Ancient Greek boukephalos (“bullheaded”, from bous, “bull ” and kephale, “head”), a reference to the bird’s bulbous head shape. Males of both species deploy ‘look-how-handsome-I-am-with-my-head-puffed-behavior’ during the courtship dance, a feature the females appear to find irresistible. Along the Goldeneye’s coastal wintering grounds they feed mostly on crustaceans, small fish, mollusks, and sea vegetation.

A fun fact about Goldeneyes – the eyes are brownish gray at hatching, then turn purple-blue, then blue, then green-blue as they grow. By five months of age they have become clear pale green-yellow. The eyes eventually become golden yellow in adult males and pale yellow to white in females.