Game Birds of the World

Like the canvasback, ring-necked duck, and lesser scaup, the redhead is exclusively a North American species of pochard. It’s breeding range, which overlaps with those of the other three, centers on the prairie marshes of southern Canada and the northern United States. These marshes offer a mix of open water that is rich in submerged aquatic plants and invertebrate life for their foraging needs and beds of emergent vegetation for nesting cover.

Females may begin nest-building from two days to a week before egglaying begins. Brood parasitism plays a significant role in the breeding biology of redheads, and apparently a considerable number of females never build nests at all but rather simply deposit their eggs in nests of other marsh-nesting waterfowl, especially other redheads, canvasbacks, and ruddy ducks. Eggs are laid at the approximate rate of one per day, and the parasitically laid eggs have lower hatching success than those that are incubated by the female laying them. Clutch sizes are thus highly variable, but average 7–8 eggs. Incubation requires about 24 days, and before its completion the males desert their mates and begin their postnuptial molt. Not only do redheads have a rather low hatching success as a result of nest desertion and the influence of parasitically laid eggs, but they also are relatively poor parents, often abandoning the brood while the latter are relatively young and still unable to fly. The fledging period is probably 55–75 days.