Tufted Duck (female) - Fuligule morillon - Reiherente

Description:

A female tufted duck warming up in the morning sun. The Tufted Duck is a medium-sized diving duck found mainly throughout temperate and northern Eurasia. The adult female is brown with paler flanks, a blue-grey bill and a yellow eye. The tuft is less prominent than on the male but well visible here.

Habitat:

The shores of a large Central European lake.

Notes:

During the sixties, the zebra mussel spread to colonize lakes and rivers in Switzerland. Many ducks, including the tufted duck, got a new source of food as a consequence. Tufted ducks reacted quickly to this new food source and have expanded their wintering area to the southwest of Europe.