In this brief film, we look at a beautiful treasure of the north: the Common Goldeneye (*Bucephala clangula*), with footage taken at Strathcona Park in Ottawa, Ontario.
Beautiful birds enjoying nearly freezing water. That neck motion toward the back is amazing. Thank you for the wonderful video and interesting information. 👍👍
Happy New Year, Jason. A very pleasing short film. I assume the drake's interesting postures toward the end were part of a courtship display; did you film that part in Spring?
Happy new year, Michael! Cool question. I had to do a little research regarding that but it is a courtship display. This whole video (minus the opening scene which was in November I think) was actually filmed in December, and courtship displays can take place around this time also. The throwing the head back together with the kicking of the water is known as a "Head-Throw Kick" as described in [1], which also describes a bunch of other cool stuff they do. The authors in [2] noticed the action is performed more often by unpaired males also. It does seem to be quite an attention-getting move. 1. Walcott, Charles, William H. Drury, and Benjamin Dane. "The form and duration of the display actions of the Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula)." Behaviour 14.1-4 (1959): 265-281. 2. AFTONI, ALAN D., and RODNEY D. SAYLER. "Social Courtship and Pairbonding of Common Goldeneyes, Bucepha/a ciangula, Wintering in Minnesota." (1982).
