Canvasback

1/250s at f8.0, ISO:500, Canon Mark III 1Ds w/800mm, 1.4x converter


The Canvasback is a large North American diving duck. Their breeding habitat is in North America prairie potholes. The bulky nest is built from vegetation in a marsh and lined with down. Loss of nesting habitat has caused populations to decline. Canvasbacks usually take new mates each year, pairing in late winter on ocean bays. They prefer to nest over water on permanent prairie marshes surrounded by emergent vegetation, such as cattails and bulrushes, which provide protective cover. Other important breeding areas are the sub-arctic river deltas in Saskatchewan and the interior of Alaska. The canvasback sometimes lays eggs in other canvasback nests. It has a clutch size of approximately 5-11 eggs that are a greenish drab. The chicks are covered in down at hatching and able to leave the nest soon after. Canvasbacks feed mainly by diving, sometimes dabbling, mostly eating seeds, buds, leaves, tubers, roots, snails, and insect larvae.
Bosque del Apache N.W.R.
 
01/13/2010