Common Goldeneye

Bucephala clangula

The common goldeneye is an active, medium-sized diving duck with a rounded head and a bright yellow iris.

Adult males have:

• A mostly white body
• A dark, glossy green head and black back
• A round white patch on the face between the eye and the base of the bill

Adult females have:

• A chestnut brown head
• A gray back
• A white neck collar

Common goldeneyes have an average wingspan of 31 inches. Males usually grow to about 17 inches long and weigh just over 2 pounds, while females tend to grow 15 inches long and weight about 1.8 pounds.

Where does the common goldeneye live?

Common goldeneyes live throughout North America in winter, staying as far north as they can while still having ice-free water. In the Chesapeake Bay region, goldeneyes arrive in highest densities between mid-November and mid-December. They are found throughout the Bay, mostly in salty and brackish waters, and tend to stay in waters that range from 5 to 20 feet deep.

What does the common goldeneye eat?

Common goldeneyes feed on crabs, crayfish, snails, clams, vegetation, and insects such as water boatmen, dragonflies and damselflies.

What does the common goldeneye sound like?

Common goldeneyes are silent, except during mating season, when the male makes a harsh, nasally call. Goldeneyes also have a rapid wing beat that makes a whistling sound, giving the bird another name: “whistlers.”

Where does the common goldeneye nest and breed?

Common goldeneyes breed in Canada, Alaska and parts of the northern United States, such as New England, the Great Lakes and Montana.

Female common goldeneyes do not breed until their second year. They usually return to the same nesting site, located in the cavity of a dead or dying tree near a wetland or waterway, year after year.

• Female goldeneyes lay one egg every other day until eight to 10 eggs have been laid.
• The female then incubates her eggs for 30 days. The male stays with the female for the first one to two weeks of the incubation period.
• After hatching, the goldeneye brood is typically left alone at about 60 days old – before the young can even fly.

Other facts about the common goldeneye:

• At hatching, a common goldeneye’s eyes are gray-brown, but they turn purple-blue, then blue, then green-blue as the bird ages. By five months of age, eyes will become a clear pale green-yellow and eventually turn into the golden eye the bird is named for.