Bufflehead

About the Bufflehead

The Bufflehead is the smallest diving duck in North America, and one of the most striking. The little drake is mostly brilliant white with a black back and an iridescent green-and-purple head wrapped in a huge white bonnet patch; the hen is gray-brown with a neat white cheek spot.

Buffleheads dive constantly, disappearing in a blink and popping back up like corks, taking aquatic insects, snails, and small crustaceans. Unlike most ducks they nest in tree cavities - almost always old Northern Flicker holes in the boreal forest - which keeps the species tied to woodpeckers for its housing.

In Texas, Buffleheads are winter visitors from November into March, scattered in small groups on lakes, reservoirs, and coastal bays statewide - tiny, hyperactive, and hard to miss among the bigger ducks.