Best time to see: all year
Key facts
Our largest duck, looking strikingly black-and-white and more like a goose than a duck
Breeds all around the Essex coast on estuary and grazing marsh, and inland on reservoirs and gravel pits
Common and widespread resident, although in July many adult birds fly off to Heligoland to moult
Recognition
Head and neck bottle green with red bill (knobbed in male), chestnut breastband, pink legs, black and white wings; 65 cm
Waddles like a goose when walking and also flies like a goose – strongly with slow wingbeats, often in lines or formation
Follows the ebb and flow of the tide, dabbling or up-ending to feed on crustaceans and molluscs
Lifecycle
Nest is a down-lined cup in a burrow (such as a disused rabbit burrow) or hollow tree
One brood of 8–15 cream eggs, May–June; incubated by female who also tends young
Young and females from several families often join together
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© Alan Williams
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© Alan Williams