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Hardhead (Aythya australis) Alternate name(s): "White-eyed Duck", "Brownhead", "Coppertop", "Punkari" Aboriginal name(s): "erooto" (WA); "bubbuloo" Size: 45-60 cm Weight: 0.53-1.1 kg

Australia: Family Group 2 Family Group 2 Table Magpie Goose Cape Barren Goose Black Swan Plumed Whistling-Duck Wandering Whistling-Duck Spotted Whistling-Duck Blue-billed Duck Musk Duck Hardhead Australian Wood Duck Pink-eared Duck Grey Teal Chestnut Teal Garganey Australian Shelduck Radjah Shelduck Freckled Duck Pacific Black Duck Green Pygmy-Goose Cotton Pygmy-Goose Australasian Shoveler Australasian Grebe Hoary-headed Grebe Great Crested Grebe Emperor Penguin King Penguin Adelie Penguin Chinstrap Penguin Gentoo Penguin Royal Penguin Rockhopper Penguin Little Penguin Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Hardheads, which are the only true diving ducks found in Australia, are large ducks with a very dark-brown, almost black plumage on head, neck, back and flanks. Only the belly and undertail are white. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. there are small differences between the two sexes. Male Hardheads have characteristic white eyes and a white tip on the dark-grey bill. Females tend to be a bit lighter in colour, the light tip of their bill is less prominent and their irises are brown. The legs and feet of both sexes are dark-grey. While in the water, the white belly is usually invisible, but the white undertail can often be seen, especially from behind. In-flight, the white wing bar on the flight feathers of the upperwings and the dark edge on otherwise near-white underwings are characteristic.

Taxonomy, classification See Hardhead at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Hardhead is available HERE . Hardheads are found mostly in Australia, but in times of drought they can disperse into eastern Indonesia, parts of New Guinea and New Zealand. Hardheads can be found basically anywhere on the Australian continent (with the exception of Arnhemland, NT), but including Tasmania, wherever there is surface water. However, they will enter arid zones such as the sandy deserts of eastern WA and the south-western NT, as well as the Nullarbor, only after significant inland rainfall. They breed in densely vegetated swamps around lakes and billabongs.

Sightings Click here for sighting information A Hardhead was first spotted by us in March 2008, 50 km West of Walgett, NSW. Since then we have seen them in, and contributors have reported them from, various parts of both inland and coastal NSW and QLD. For example, Hardheads are spotted by us occasionally on Narrabri Lake, Narrabri, NSW. Hardheads were also seen by us in ephemeral wetlands created at the time by flooding rain 20 km South of Walgett, NSW, in June 2012. J. Greaves reports spotting Hardheads at the Granites Gold Mine, inland NT, in June 2015. H. Mouritsen reports spotting Hardheads at Fogg Dam NR, NT, in October 2015. A. Ross-Taylor reports spotting Hardheads at the Brisbane Botanical Gardens in August 2019. B. Hensen reports finding Hardheads at Centennial Park, Sydney, NSW, in February 2014. P. Brown spotted Hardheads at the Palmerston Golf Course, NT, in December 2019. C. Pears found Hardheads at Finke Gorge NP, NT, in August 2016. They were also found at Mawson Lakes, Adelaide, SA, in August 2017. In September 2022, they were first found at Lake Herdsman, Perth, WA.

Photos

ADULT

MALE

Close-up frontal view of a male Hardhead (photo courtesy of C. Hayne)
[Toowoomba, QLD, October 2011]

Frontal view of a male Hardhead, back, asserting its superiority over a competitor (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[Lake Herdsman, Perth, WA, September 2022]

Close-up near-lateral view of a male Hardhead, with a Wandering Whistling-Duck behind (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Sandy Camp Road Wetlands, Lytton, QLD, November 2018]

Near-lateral view of a male Hardhead (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[Lake Herdsman, Perth, WA, September 2022]

Near-lateral view of a male Hardhead
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, November 2010]

Close-up lateral view of a male Hardhead (photo courtesy of C. Hayne)
[Toowoomba, QLD, October 2011]

Lateral view of a male Hardhead
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, November 2010]

Lateral view of 3 male Hardheads (photo courtesy of C. Pears)
[Lake Herdsman, Perth, WA, September 2022]

Lateral view of a male Hardhead together with a Pacific Black Duck
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, August 2010]

Near-dorsal view of a male Hardhead that has just surfaced from a dive
[Whittaker's Lagoon, near Moree, NSW, June 2012]

Dorsal view of a male Hardhead; note the characteristic white rear
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, June 2021]

Dorsal view of a male Hardhead that has just re-surfaced (photo courtesy of R. Druce)
[Whittaker's Lagoon, near Moree, NSW, June 2012]

Lateral view of a male Hardhead in flight, wings down (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Centennial Park, Sydney, NSW, February 2014]

Lateral view of a male Hardhead in flight, wings up (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Centennial Park, Sydney, NSW, February 2014]

Lateral view of two male Hardheads in flight, displaying their underwings and upperwings, respectively
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, March 2020]

Lateral view of a male Hardhead touching down (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Centennial Park, Sydney, NSW, February 2014]

Near-dorsal/ventral view of two male Hardheads in flight
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, September 2010]

FEMALE

Frontal view of a female Hardhead
[Old Quipolly Dam, Quirindi, NSW, April 2012]

Near-lateral view of a female Hardhead (photo courtesy of A. Ross-Taylor)
[Botanical Gardens, Brisbane, QLD, August 2019]

Close-up lateral view of a female Hardhead (photo courtesy of C. Hayne)
[Toowoomba, QLD, October 2011]

Lateral view of a female Hardhead with its head turned towards the camera
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, November 2010]

Lateral view of a female Hardhead
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, November 2010]

Near-dorsal view of a female Hardhead; note the characteristic white rear
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, June 2021]

Lateral view of a female Hardhead in flight (photo courtesy of R. Druce)

PAIR

Lateral view of a pair of Hardheads - female in front, male behind
[Old Quipolly Dam, Quirindi, NSW, December 2016]

Lateral view of a pair of Hardheads
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, October 2010]

In this shot one can see a male Hardhead feeding while keeping a watchful eye on his mate
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, November 2010]

Dorsal view of a pair of Hardheads
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, October 2010]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Close-up lateral view of a juvenile Hardhead
[50 km S of Mungindi, NSW, January 2023]

Close-up lateral view of a juvenile Hardhead
[50 km S of Mungindi, NSW, January 2023]

Close-up lateral view of a juvenile Hardhead
[50 km S of Mungindi, NSW, January 2023]

Female Hardhead with a clutch of about 10 chicks
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, November 2010]

One of the Hardhead chicks apparently tried to climb onto mum's back
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, November 2010]

Female Hardhead with her ducklings
[Old Quipolly Dam, Quirindi, NSW, December 2016]

Family of Hardheads retreating into reeds
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, January 2012]

Direct comparison between a Pacific Black Duck, right, and a male Hardhead, left
[Narrabri Lake, NSW, July 2014]

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Communal

Mobility: Nomadic/dispersive

Elementary unit: Pair/flock

Hardheads are known to be diving ducks and have been observed by us to do so. They can stay under water for a considerable time (30 seconds and more) and over considerable distances (100 m or more).

Especially outside the breeding season Hardheads can form large flocks; this is a cut-out - click on image to see the full field-of-view
[Barambah Dam, near Kingaroy, QLD, June 2017]

Birds that are preyed upon by raptors have wide-angle vision, i.e. their eyes are on the sides of their heads. When checking their surroundings, they typically look at things sideways, as shown in the photos below.

Hardhead checking its surroundings; at the time an immature White-bellied Sea-Eagle was circling above
[Old Quipolly Dam, Qurindi, NSW, April 2012]

Food, Diet

Like all other geese, ducks and swans, Hardheads are vegetarian. They dive to feed on underwater plants.

Lateral view of a female Hardhead with a piece of aquatic plant
[Old Quipolly Dam, near Quirindi, NSW, May 2022]

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

hrdhead_20220819.mp3	(NW NSW)	Contact calls(?)	© MD
hrdhead_20220819_2.mp3	(NW NSW)	Contact calls(?)	© MD

More Hardhead sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

Would you like to contribute photos or sound recordings to this site? If interested, please CLICK HERE. Credits to contributors are given HERE.

Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Fri, 13 January 2023, 22:54 +00:00