Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Com­mon gold­eneyes are found through­out North Amer­ica and Eura­sia. They breed in higher lat­i­tudes, from Scot­land, north­ern Eu­rope, and Scan­di­navia across north­ern Eura­sia to the Kam­chatka Penin­sula and through­out much of Canada from in­te­rior British Co­lum­bia to New­found­land. They breed also in north­ern­most Michi­gan, north­east­ern Min­nesota, north­ern Mon­tana, and por­tions of north­ern New York, Ver­mont, and Maine. Win­ter ranges in­clude coastal North Amer­ica from Alaska to Baja Cal­i­for­nia, New­found­land to Florida, and the north­ern Gulf of Mex­ico, through­out in­land United States ex­cept for por­tions of Texas, the south­east, and Ari­zona, and into the Sierra Madre range of Mex­ico and north­ern­most coastal Mex­ico. In Eura­sia they are found in coastal wa­ters from Scan­di­navia to the Mediter­ranean, Black, and Caspian Seas and from Kam­chatka to Japan. They are also found in in­land lakes that re­main ice-free. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native
• palearctic
  • native

• Other Geographic Terms
• holarctic

Habi­tat

Dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, com­mon gold­eneyes are found on north­ern lakes and rivers that are sur­rounded by ma­ture forests where tree cav­i­ties can be found for nest­ing. They pre­fer lakes with clear water and lit­tle emer­gent veg­e­ta­tion, al­though areas ad­ja­cent to bul­rushes (Scir­pus) are some­times used for for­ag­ing. Pre­ferred lakes are those with abun­dant in­ver­te­brate prey. Lakes that lack preda­tory fish, such as yel­low perch (Perca flavescens), typ­i­cally have the high­est abun­dance of in­ver­te­brate prey. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

Dur­ing the win­ter, non-breed­ing sea­son, com­mon gold­eneyes are found mainly in coastal ma­rine and es­tu­ar­ine habi­tats and large, in­te­rior lakes and rivers. They pre­fer areas with shal­low water and sandy, gravel, or rocky sub­strates. They are strong swim­mers and can for­age well in areas with strong cur­rent, but seem to pre­fer slow-flow­ing water. Com­mon gold­eneyes stop to re­fuel at large, in­te­rior lakes and rivers dur­ing mi­gra­tion to­wards coastal areas. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• freshwater

• Aquatic Biomes
• lakes and ponds
• rivers and streams
• coastal
• brackish water

• Other Habitat Features
• estuarine

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Com­mon gold­eneyes are medium-sized div­ing ducks. Males are slightly larger than fe­males, from 45 to 51 cm in length (40 to 50 cm in fe­males) and about 1000 grams (800 grams in fe­males) weight. Males also have more brightly col­ored plumage for most of the year. Breed­ing males have a bril­liant, green­ish-black head marked with an oval, white patch at the base of the bill. Their sides, breast, belly, and sec­ondary feath­ers are bright white and their back, wings, and tail are black. Fe­male plumage is more muted, with rich brown heads, grey­ish backs, wings, and tails, and white sides, breasts, and bel­lies. Im­ma­ture or eclipse males re­sem­ble fe­males. Ma­ture adults of both sexes have bright, deep, yel­low irises, giv­ing them the com­mon name "gold­en­eye." Im­ma­ture in­di­vid­u­als have brown­ish irises. In flight their wings pro­duce a whistling sound, which is char­ac­ter­is­tic. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

The North Amer­i­can sub­species of com­mon gold­eneyes (B. c. amer­i­cana) is larger over­all and has a thicker bill than the Eurasian sub­species (B. c. clan­gula). Com­mon gold­eneyes can be con­fused with Bar­row's gold­eneyes (Bu­cephala is­landica). How­ever, adult male com­mon gold­eneyes have an oval white patch on the head (cres­cent shaped in Bar­row's gold­eneyes) and more white on the sec­ondary feath­ers. Fe­males are more eas­ily con­fused, but fe­male com­mon gold­eneyes have longer, slop­ing heads and bills and more white on the sec­ondary feath­ers than fe­male Bar­row's gold­eneyes. In west­ern North Amer­ica, fe­male Bar­row's gold­eneyes have all yel­low bills, com­mon gold­eneyes do not. This char­ac­ter does not work in other re­gions. Hatch­lings of both species are also sim­i­lar in ap­pear­ance. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• sexes colored or patterned differently
• male more colorful

• Average mass

  800-1000 g

  oz

• Range length

  40 to 51 cm

  15.75 to 20.08 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Com­mon gold­eneyes are monog­a­mous. Pair bonds are formed in De­cem­ber and last until the male aban­dons the fe­male at the be­gin­ning of in­cu­ba­tion. It is un­known if pair bonds last over mul­ti­ple years. Males use a com­plex set of courtship dis­plays from De­cem­ber to March to es­tab­lish and main­tain the pair bond. Courtship dis­plays occur in groups of sev­eral males and fe­males, av­er­ag­ing 4.4 males and 1.2 fe­males per group. There are vari­a­tions on the dis­plays. The most spec­tac­u­lar is the "head-throw-kick," in which a male re­peat­edly thrusts his head for­ward, then moves it back to­wards his rump and ut­ters a call. He then flicks his head for­ward again while kick­ing the water with his feet. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

• Mating System
• monogamous

Re­pro­duc­tion in com­mon gold­eneyes has been well-stud­ied be­cause they are rel­a­tively com­mon in north­ern bo­real areas and nest in boxes, mak­ing them eas­ier to ob­serve. Fe­males lay from 4 to 12.3 green­ish eggs in a clutch and lay a sin­gle clutch each sea­son. Clutch size es­ti­mates are dif­fi­cult to de­ter­mine be­cause of the fre­quency of in­traspe­cific nest par­a­sitism, which in­flates clutch sizes. in one study av­er­age clutch size was 9.77, when par­a­sitized nests were ex­cluded, av­er­age clutch size was 7.13 eggs. Eggs are from 61.2 to 66.6 grams. Fe­males lay 1 egg every other day. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

Com­mon gold­eneyes nest in tree cav­i­ties, but will ac­cept nest boxes and oc­ca­sion­ally are found in rock cav­i­ties. Fe­males find nest cav­i­ties and line them with a nest bowl con­structed of other ma­te­ri­als and downy feath­ers. Pre­ferred nest­ing sites seem to be those used pre­vi­ously with suc­cess, rather than nest­ing sites closer to food re­sources for adults or young. Nests are gen­er­ally within 1.3 km of water. Fe­males who fail to breed suc­cess­fully are more likely to change nest sites be­tween years. Chang­ing nest sites also seems to de­crease re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess, pro­duc­ing smaller clutches. Fe­males tend to nest in the gen­eral vicin­ity of their pre­vi­ous nest or natal nest. Younger fe­males gen­er­ally lay smaller clutches later in the sea­son and have lower re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess than ex­pe­ri­enced breed­ers. After about 6 years old, clutch sizes begin to de­cline. Nest mor­tal­ity is mainly due to pre­da­tion. Clutches laid late in the year have higher mor­tal­ity rates com­pared to early clutches. (Dow and Fredga, 1983; Dow and Fredga, 1984; Eadie, et al., 1995; Eriks­son, 1979a)

Fe­males in­cu­bate the eggs for 28 to 32 days. They leave the nest oc­ca­sion­ally dur­ing the day to for­age. Eggs hatch syn­chro­nously, within 12 hours of each other. Fe­males first breed at over 2 years old, some re­searchers es­ti­mate breed­ing starts at about 3.2 years old on av­er­age and breed­ing con­tin­ues an­nu­ally for 3.9 years. (Dow and Fredga, 1983; Dow and Fredga, 1984; Eadie, et al., 1995)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Common goldeneyes breed yearly, although some individuals do skip occasional years.

• Breeding season

  Breeding occurs from December through May.

• Range eggs per season

  4 to 12.3

• Average eggs per season

  8.7

• Range time to hatching

  28 to 32 days

• Range fledging age

  56 to 65 days

• Range time to independence

  7 to 42 days

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  2 to 6 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  3.2 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  2 (low) years

Young are pre­co­cial and leave the nest 24 to 36 hours after hatch­ing. The mother at­tends the nest cav­ity en­trance until all of the young jump to the ground. Fe­males lead their brood away from the nest site to a brood­ing ter­ri­tory up to 10 km away. Only fe­males de­fend the young and brood them at night and dur­ing cold weather. Fe­males aban­don their broods be­fore they fledge, usu­ally around 5 to 6 weeks old, but some­times as early as 1 week after hatch­ing. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Adult fe­males have a mean an­nual sur­vival rate of from 58 to 77%, vary­ing with study and re­gion. Band­ing records in Canada sug­gest that males can live to 11 years and fe­males to 12 years, al­though an un­sexed in­di­vid­ual was recorded liv­ing to 15 years. Hunt­ing, pre­da­tion, and dis­eases are noted as the lead­ing causes of mor­tal­ity in adults. Hatch­lings are sus­cep­ti­ble to cold, wet weather, which may re­sult in mor­tal­ity. Young suf­fer heavy mor­tal­ity within the first few weeks of hatch­ing. (Dow and Fredga, 1984; Eadie, et al., 1995)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  15 (high) years

Be­hav­ior

Com­mon gold­en­eye pop­u­la­tions mi­grate be­tween their sum­mer, breed­ing ranges and win­ter­ing grounds. They are often one of the last ducks to leave their sum­mer grounds and will win­ter as far north as is pos­si­ble in ice-free areas. North­ward mi­gra­tions to­wards breed­ing ranges be­gins in Feb­ru­ary in North Amer­ica. South­ward mi­gra­tion can begin as early as July, some pop­u­la­tions begin mi­grat­ing south as late as Oc­to­ber. They gen­er­ally mi­grate in small flocks of 4 to 40 in­di­vid­u­als but will gather with other groups into large flocks at stopover areas. In sum­mer fe­males are gen­er­ally soli­tary or found with their broods. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

Com­mon gold­eneyes spend most of their time on the water. They only walk when mov­ing broods from the nest to the water or over­land to other lakes. They can fly up to 72 km per hour with 9 wing­beats per sec­ond. They fly low over the water in short-dis­tance flights but fly at higher el­e­va­tions when trav­el­ing over longer dis­tances. Com­mon gold­eneyes are ex­cel­lent swim­mers and divers, they typ­i­cally for­age in small groups, div­ing syn­chro­nously to search for prey. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• natatorial
• diurnal
• motile
• migratory
• social

Home Range

Home range sizes are not doc­u­mented in com­mon gold­eneyes. They for­age in small groups and are so­cial ex­cept for the breed­ing sea­son. Males de­fend small ter­ri­to­ries that in­clude the nest dur­ing breed­ing sea­son. They cease de­fend­ing ter­ri­to­ries when fe­males begin in­cu­bat­ing eggs. Fe­males also de­fend their nest­ing ter­ri­tory as well as a brood­ing ter­ri­tory once the eggs have hatched. De­gree of ter­ri­to­ri­al­ity may de­pend on local pop­u­la­tion den­si­ties. Den­si­ties have been es­ti­mated at from 0.5 to 3.5 pairs per km of shore­line in Min­nesota. Fe­male com­mon gold­eneyes show marked natal philopa­try. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Com­mon gold­eneyes are mainly silent out­side of the courtship and nest-find­ing pe­riod. Males make short, faint "peent" calls dur­ing courtship dis­plays and grunt­ing sounds after cop­u­la­tion. Fe­males make "gack" sounds that are de­scribed as harsh croaks when look­ing for nest sites or when dis­turbed. Vi­sual sig­nals are used in courtship and ag­gres­sion. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Com­mon gold­eneyes eat mainly aquatic in­sects dur­ing breed­ing sea­son in north­ern, bo­real lakes. In their win­ter ranges they rely on fish, crus­taceans, and mol­lusks. They may also take some seeds and tu­bers. A study of 395 com­mon gold­eneyes through­out the year sug­gested that the ma­jor­ity of their diet is made up of crus­taceans, in­sects, and mol­lusks (70% al­to­gether), with the re­main­der made up of fish, eggs, and plant ma­te­r­ial. Diet is likely to vary re­gion­ally, but im­por­tant crus­taceans in­clude crabs (Hem­i­grap­sus, Can­cer, Pagu­rus, Cam­barus, As­ta­cus), am­phipods (Is­chy­ro­cerus, Pseudal­i­bro­tus, Gam­marel­lus, Hyalella), shrimp, isopods, and bar­na­cles. Im­por­tant in­sect prey in­clude cad­dis­fly lar­vae (Tri­choptera), water boat­men (Corix­i­dae), drag­on­fly and dam­selfly nymphs (Odonata), mayfly nymphs (Ephemeroptera), and bee­tles (Coleoptera). Mol­lusk prey in­cludes Mytilus, Lym­nea, Ma­coma, Lit­to­rina, Nu­cula, Go­nioba­sis, Nas­sar­ius, La­cuna, Bit­tium, and Mitrella. Fish prey may be lo­cally im­por­tant. For ex­am­ple, in British Co­lum­bia salmon and their eggs can make up a large por­tion of the diet. Other fish taken in­clude stick­le­backs (Gas­terostei­dae), sculpins (Cot­ti­dae), min­nows (Cyprinidae), top­min­nows (Poe­cili­idae), and white­fishes (Core­gonus). Plant mat­ter taken in­cludes fresh­wa­ter pond weeds (Po­to­moge­ton, Zostera, Rup­pia, Najas, Zanichel­lia) and spat­ter­dock (Nymphaea). (Eadie, et al., 1995)

Com­mon gold­eneyes typ­i­cally hunt for prey in water less than 4 me­ters deep. They seem to pre­fer for­ag­ing in open water, al­though they may hunt along the edges of aquatic veg­e­ta­tion. They dive to catch prey and dives can be from 10 to 55 sec­onds long. Downy hatch­lings mainly feed at the sur­face for their first few days but then begin short dives. Hatch­lings for­age in the same ways as adults, al­though they seem to be more se­lec­tive about prey taken. They take greater pro­por­tions of drag­on­fly and dam­selfly nymphs (Odonata), cad­dis­fly lar­vae (Tri­choptera), and water boat­men (Corix­i­dae). For­ag­ing flocks often dive syn­chro­nously. Prey items are typ­i­cally con­sumed un­der­wa­ter. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore
  • eats non-insect arthropods
  • molluscivore

• Animal Foods
• fish
• eggs
• insects
• mollusks
• aquatic crustaceans

• Plant Foods
• roots and tubers
• seeds, grains, and nuts

Pre­da­tion

Most pre­da­tion oc­curs on fe­males and young in nests. North Amer­i­can preda­tors of in­cu­bat­ing fe­males and hatch­lings in­clude black bears (Ursus amer­i­canus), Amer­i­can martens (Martes amer­i­canus), mink (Neo­vi­son vison), rac­coons (Pro­cyon lotor), hawks (Ac­cip­itri­dae), owls (St­rigi­formes), bald ea­gles (Hali­aee­tus leu­co­cephalus), and golden ea­gles (Aquila chrysae­tos). Hatch­lings are also taken by north­ern flick­ers (Co­laptes au­ra­tus), red squir­rels (Tami­as­ci­u­rus hud­son­i­cus), and north­ern pike (Esox lu­cius). Hatch­lings are cryp­ti­cally col­ored and fe­males have sub­dued plumage as well. Fe­males de­fend their nests and broods with bro­ken-wing dis­plays. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • American black bears (Ursus americanus)
  • American martens (Martes americanus)
  • mink (Neovison vison)
  • raccoons (Procyon lotor)
  • hawks (Accipitridae)
  • owls (Strigiformes)
  • bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus
  • golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos)
  • northern flickers (Colaptes auratus)
  • red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)
  • northern pike (Esox lucius)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Com­mon gold­eneyes com­pete di­rectly with fish for prey and tend to be found on fish-free lakes more often than on lakes with fish. Re­moval of river perch (Perca flu­vi­atilis) and roach (Ru­tilus ru­tilus) from a lake in Swe­den re­sulted in in­creased use of that lake by com­mon gold­eneyes. (Eriks­son, 1979b)

Like many other species of ducks, in­traspe­cific nest par­a­sitism is com­mon in Bu­cephala clan­gula. Fe­males whose nests are par­a­sitized ac­cept in­tro­duced eggs as their own but will aban­don nests when too many in­tro­duced eggs are added to the nest in a short pe­riod of time. Com­mon gold­en­eye fe­males lay fewer of their own eggs when other eggs are in­tro­duced early in the egg-lay­ing phase be­cause they tend to brood only clutches of an op­ti­mal size. Lev­els of in­traspe­cific par­a­sitism vary sub­stan­tially among pop­u­la­tions and may be in­flu­enced by how lim­ited nest cav­i­ties are in that area. Lev­els of par­a­sitism range from 0 to 77.8% in British Co­lum­bia - seem­ing to vary mostly by local area and less year to year. Clutches with in­tro­duced eggs can be as large as 24, but most par­a­sitized nests in British Co­lum­bia had less than 13 eggs in them. (An­der­s­son and Eri, 1982; Eadie, et al., 1995)

Com­mon gold­eneyes are sus­cep­ti­ble to bot­u­lism (Clostrid­ium bot­u­linum), avian cholera (Pas­teurella mul­to­cida), and duck viral en­teri­tis. Known par­a­sites in­clude sev­eral species of pro­to­zoans, flukes, and ne­ma­todes. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Com­mon gold­eneyes are hunted through­out much of their range. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

• Positive Impacts
• food

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of com­mon gold­eneyes on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Com­mon gold­en­eye pop­u­la­tions seem to be rel­a­tively sta­ble de­spite threats to their aquatic habi­tats, such as acid rain, con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, and habi­tat de­struc­tion. They are con­sid­ered "least con­cern" by the IUCN be­cause of their large range, large pop­u­la­tion size, and no doc­u­mented pop­u­la­tion de­clines. They are pro­tected as a mi­gra­tory bird under the U.S. Mi­gra­tory Bird Act. Pop­u­la­tion den­si­ties may be most af­fected by avail­abil­ity of nest cav­i­ties. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Migratory Bird Act

  Protected

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Other Com­ments

Com­mon gold­eneyes are some­times called "whistlers" be­cause of the whistling noise their wings make in flight. (Eadie, et al., 1995)

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (au­thor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Ref­er­ences

An­der­s­son, M., M. Eri. 1982. Nest Par­a­sitism in Gold­eneyes Bu­cephala clan­gula: Some Evo­lu­tion­ary As­pects. The Amer­i­can Nat­u­ral­ist, 120: 1-16.

Dow, H., S. Fredga. 1983. Breed­ing and natal dis­per­sal of the gold­en­eye, Bu­cephala clan­gula. Jour­nal of An­i­mal Ecol­ogy, 52: 681-695.

Dow, H., S. Fredga. 1984. Fac­tors Af­fect­ing Re­pro­duc­tive Out­put of the Gold­en­eye Duck Bu­cephala clan­gula. The Jour­nal of An­i­mal Ecol­ogy, 53: 679-692.

Eadie, J., M. Mal­lory, H. Lums­den. 1995. Com­mon Gold­en­eye (Bu­cephala clan­gula). Pp. 1-20 in J Poole`, ed. The Birds of North Amer­ica On­line, Vol. 170. Ithaca: The Cor­nell Lab of Or­nithol­ogy. Ac­cessed March 05, 2009 at http://​bna.​birds.​cornell.​edu.​proxy.​lib.​umich.​edu/​bna/​species/​170.

Eriks­son, M. 1979. As­pects of the breed­ing bi­ol­ogy of the gold­en­eye Bu­cephala clan­gula. Ecog­ra­phy, 2: 186-194.

Eriks­son, M. 1979. Com­pe­ti­tion Be­tween Fresh­wa­ter Fish and Gold­eneyes Bu­cephala clan­gula for Com­mon Prey. Oe­colo­gia, 41: 99-107.