Redhead

Status Rare in summer, very rare in winter. Breeds. The first record of this species was of one shot near Sambro, Halifax County, late in the nineteenth century (Jones 1885). Piers (1894) noted another Redhead taken near Dartmouth in February 1894. Another four were recorded prior to 1960, but since then it has been seen more frequently, possibly partly as a result of releases of pen-reared birds in the eastern United States. Birds were also released by Cyrus S. Eaton in Lunenburg County. Redheads are found in small numbers in summer in the Amherst area and at Wallace Bay, Cumberland County. Transients have been seen elsewhere between 4 April and mid-May in spring (three reports, five birds) and between 23 September and 18 December in autumn (seven reports, 16 birds); these have been found widely, from Cape Breton Island to Yarmouth County. Winter records, other than the above-mentioned bird from Dartmouth, are all for Yarmouth County: a male shot in winter 1901 (Allen 1916), another killed in February 1901 (Piers' notes) and a bird seen in Argyle Sound on 22 February 1976.

Description Length: 45-58 cm. Adult male: Back and sides gray, finely barred with black; breasts, uppertail and undertail coverts black; head rounded and rufous. Adult female: Dull brown, paler beneath, with an indistinct light patch below and behind base of bill. Both sexes: Gray secondaries, and gray bill with an indistinct pale grayish white ring around the tip.

Breeding Nest: A cupped mound of old vegetation, usually in shallow water but sometimes on dry ground. Eggs: about 10; greenish to olive-gray; often lays in nests of other ducks. The first brood in Nova Scotia was seen in the Wallace Bay National Wildlife Area in 1978, and other broods have been found annually since. A brood was noted in the Amherst Point Bird Sanctuary in 1981.

Range Breeds in Alaska, and from northern Saskatchewan and central Manitoba, south to southern California, Kansas and Iowa, sporadically in eastern North America. Winters from British Columbia, the Great Lakes and New England to southern Mexico.

Remarks Highly prized as a table bird, the Redhead ranks close in this regard to its larger cousin, the Canvasback, to which it bears a general resemblance. Redheads of both sexes are darker, and the shapes of their necks and heads are quite different from those of the Canvasback: this bird's head is more rounded, giving it a puffy appearance; that of the Canvasback has a peculiar, flattened appearance.