HUNTING HORIZONS - Worldwide Hunting Seasons Database

The Common Goldeneye [Bucephala clangula] is a medium sized, migratory sea duck. They are found in the lakes and rivers of boreal forests across Canada, the northern United States, Scandinavia northern Russia and Britain. Their breeding habitat is the taiga; most winter in protected coastal waters or open inland waters at more temperate latitudes, European birds winter on lakes and coastal waters from Iceland south to the northern Mediterranean.


The species is aptly named for its golden-yellow eye.


MALE: Length: 45-52 cm;
Weight: 890-1400 grams;
Wingspan: 62-77 cm.

Adult males have a dark head with a greenish gloss and a circular white patch below the eye, bill dark grey, a dark back and a white neck and belly, legs and feet are orange-yellow. At rest the male looks mostly white with a dark head, mantle and rear. The big white blob behind the bill is conspicuous and distinctive.


FEMALE: Length 40-50 cm;
Weight: 500-1182 grams;
Wingspan: 62-77 cm.

Females appear dark grey-brown, belly white with darker purplish-brown bulbous heads bulging at the nape, bill black with orange tip and usually showing various amounts of white in the closed wing, bulbous head shape.

HABITAT: Breeds in wooded areas near lakes and pools and winters on estuaries, coasts, lakes and reservoirs.

The male Goldeneye in spring indulges in wonderful head-throwing displays, enticing the females to mate even in wintering areas hundreds of miles from where they will nest.

FEEDING: These diving birds forage underwater for crustaceans, aquatic insects, molluscs, fish eggs and aquatic plants. Insects are the predominant prey while nesting and crustaceans are the predominant prey during migration and winter.

CALL: During courtship the male has a grating zee-zeee of zee-zee-at, the female has a low abrasive quack.


FLIGHT: Goldeneye are fast, direct fliers with mostly white inner wings making a characteristic whistling noise as they fly by.