Redhead Identification

The Four Keys to ID

• Size & Shape

  Redheads are medium-sized diving ducks with a smoothly rounded head and a moderately large bill.

  Relative Size

  Slightly larger than a Ring-necked Duck; slightly smaller than a Canvasback.

  between crow and goose

  Measurements

  • Both Sexes
  • • Length: 16.5-21.3 in (42-54 cm)
    • Weight: 22.2-52.9 oz (630-1500 g)
    • Wingspan: 29.5-31.1 in (75-79 cm)

  © Greg Gillson / Macaulay Library

• Color Pattern

  Male Redheads are a dapper mixture of cinnamon head, black breast and tail, and neat gray body. Females and immatures are a plain, mostly uniform brown. Redheads have black-tipped, gray bills, and in flight they show gray flight feathers.

• Behavior

  In migration and winter, look for Redheads in large rafts, often with other species including Canvasbacks, scaup, wigeon, and American Coots. They usually dive for their food, although they use shallower water than other diving ducks and may feed by tipping up, like a dabbling duck.
• Habitat

  Redheads breed mainly in seasonal wetlands such as the prairie pothole region of the Midwest. In migration and winter they group into large flocks on the Gulf Coast, as well as along the Great Lakes and in lakes, reservoirs, bays, and along coastlines across the southern U.S.