Redhead Drake

• Flat bottom decorative decoy

• Basswood carving

• Painted with acrylics

• 10 – 12 inches

Redheads are a common member of the diving duck family, which are slightly smaller than the Mallard.  Redheads can be mistaken for mallards at a distance.  Breeding is based primarily in the northern prairie pothole parklands region of North America.  A round head with a pronounced high forehead distinguishes the male while marked similar the the Drake Canvasback.  Canvasbacks have a slopping forehead that distinguishes them from all other ducks.

The long grey bill is tipped with black, somewhat like the Ring Neck’s bill.  Immature and female Redheads are remarkably similar to the Ring Neck. 

The great majority of the Redhead population winters along the Gulf Coast.  Returning to the large marshes in the spring where they usually nest in the emergent vegetation along the larger, deeper potholes of the prairies and parklands.  Nests are built within a few yards of open water. 

While Redheads are actually divers, they tend to occupy shallower water habitats, sometimes only a few feet deep.  Feeding mostly on vegetable matter, Redheads often tip up like dabblers.  Hen Redheads exhibit the semi-parasitic habit of laying their eggs in the nests of competitors, like Canvasbacks, who then brood and raise the Redhead chicks. 

The call of the male Redhead actually resembles that of a cat meowing.  The Hen has a soft grunting call, thus being a duck that does not quack.