Bucephala albeola
Appearance
- Known as the “butterball”
- Showy white crest
- One of North America’s smallest diving duck species.
Breeding
- Like its close relative, the common goldeneye, the bufflehead nests in cavities in trees close to water, often in the abandoned homes of flickers and other woodpeckers.
- The bufflehead arrives late in spring and departs just in advance of freeze-up.
- It breeds in forested areas from west-central Alaska through western Canada and the northwestern states.