Common Pochard (male and female)

Exminster and Powderham Marshes, United Kingdom

Pochards are a species of duck that breeds in northern and western Europe, central Asia, south and central Siberia and northerm China. In autumn, they migrate to southern and western Europe, the eastern Mediterranean, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Turkey, the Middle East and even as far as sub-Saharan African. More eastern population winter in SE Asia, the Indian subcontinent and as far East as Japan.

Habitat

Like other wildfowl, the common pochard spends most of its time in or close to water. For breeding it prefers marshes and lakes with water a metre or more in depth. It winters on lakes, large rivers, and in bays prefering stationary or slow moving water.

Feeding

Common pochard are omnivores and eat aquatic plants, seeds, molluscs, insects and small fish. They are both dabbling and diving ducks that usually feed at night.

Breeding

The common pochard is monogamous and lays one clutch of eggs each season. The female constructs a nest of reeds, leaves and grass lined with down placed in a shallow depression in vegetation or on a platform in the water. The female also incubates the 8-10 greeny-buff or pale grey-green eggs with the male absent during this period. Both parents raise the chicks.

Wildfile Specials

• The common pochard is in steep decline due to habitat loss, climate change and hunting. It is classified as vulnerable by the IUCN.
• Two female common pochard sometimes share a nest and incubate up to 22 eggs.
• Common pochard gather in large mixed species flocks in autumn and winter.
• Common pochard sometimes interbreed with tufted ducks.