Barrow's goldeneye Bucephala islandica

Identification Tips:

• Length: 13 inches Wingspan: 31 inches
• Medium-sized diving duck
• Yellow eye
• Steeply sloped forehead with flatter crown and peak at forward part of crown
• Small, stubby bill
• White patches on the secondaries and secondary coverts visible in flight
• Juvenile similar to adult female but usually with darker bill

Adult male alternate:

• Alternate plumage worn from fall through early summer
• Glossy purplish head
• Crescent-shaped white patch between eye and bill
• White neck, breast and belly
• Dark back
• Black scapulars with row of rectangular white spots
• Dark tail, upper- and under-tail coverts
• White patch on wing split by black bar

Adult male basic:

• Eclipse-plumage male like adult female but with darker bill and sometimes darker head

Adult female:

• Usually has an all-yellow bill
• White patch on wing split by two black bars
• Reddish-brown head
• Gray body plumage, paler on the breast and darker on the back

Similar species:

Section still in preparation.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.