Canvasback Drake

• Flat bottom decorative decoy

• Basswood carving

• Painted with acrylics

• 10 – 12 inches

The king of the ducks, Canvasbacks are the most recognizable of the diving ducks. Once an important food source for the Eastern cities of the US, market hunters harvested thousands of these birds to feed growing populations. The Canvasback's tendency to gather in large rafts and to take to wing by running along the water surface to gain speed made them easy targets for large shot guns mounted on the hunters boats.

The male Canvasback, like the male Wood Duck has red eyes, while the female's eye color is brown. The drakes breeding color consists of having mostly white wings, only the primaries are black. The vermiculation marks that color the drake's white feathers appear very early on these birds in their first year.

The population of canvasbacks has suffered recently from loss of their primary food source, wild celery brought on by increase turbidity of Chesapeake Bay where the majority of the North American Canvasback population wintered along the east coast. This winter destination is the goal of the majority of canvasbacks who having bread as far away as the Yukon in Alaska still join those from the prairie pothole region to winter in Chesapeake Bay.

Canvasbacks feed mostly on vegetable matter, although not as exclusively as Redheads who depend on vegetable matter for 90% of their diet. The decline of wild celery in their habitat may have caused the decreased reliance on plant matter, but this is not known for sure. The long-term consequences of the changing habitat are still not known.