HUNTING HORIZONS - Worldwide Hunting Seasons Database

The Ferruginous Duck [Aythya nyroca] is a medium-sized diving duck from Eurasia. Their breeding habitat is marshes and lakes in south eastern Europe, the Middle east, and south western Asia, they winter farther south and into north and western Africa, the Middle East, India and south east Asia; those from the Ukraine and southern Russia winter around the Mediterranean and Black Seas.


LENGTH: 38-42 cm
WEIGHT: 520-580 kg
WINGSPAN: 65 cm


MALE: Rich mahogany-red with a darker back and a yellow eye, pure white triangular patch under tail.


FEMALE: female is similar but duller, and with a dark eye.


JUVENILE: Similar but belly and under tail grey-buff, in flight a broad white wing bar extends onto outer primaries.

HABITAT: Prefers shallower and more vegetated areas and seldom sits out on open water. Breeds and winters on shallow, well-vegetated lakes, marshes and fishponds.

FEEDING: These birds feed, diving or dabbling, eating aquatic plants, worms, molluscs, aquatic insects, amphibians and small fish. They often feed at night, and will upend as well as diving.

CALL: In spring female noisy in flight with err-err call and male with a short chuk call.
FLIGHT: In flight Ferruginous Ducks look black and white like Tufted Ducks but their white wing bars look even more striking since they extend across all the primaries. The neater, more clearly defined white belly is another useful feature along with the peaked triangular head.