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Tufted Ducks are small diving ducks. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are different. In addition, males have different breeding and eclipse plumages. Male Tufted Ducks in breeding plumage are all black-and-white, with a black head, with nuchal plume, neck, chest and back. The belly and flanks are white. The upperwings are black, with white flight feathers that have a broad black terminal band on both upperwing and underwing. The underwings are otherwise white. In eclipse the parts that are white turn greyish with some vermiculation and the parts that are black lose their gloss. The nuchal plume is much reduced in eclipse, but still present. Females have a much more inconspicuous plumage. They are basically entirely dark greyish-brown, with head, chest and back a darker shade of greyish-brown than the flanks and wing coverts. During the breeding season female Tufted Ducks show some white around the base of the bill. In eclipse this white around the base of the bill tends to vanish. The irises of both sexes are golden-yellow. The bill is grey, with a broad black tip and a hint of a light-grey band just above the tip. The legs and feet are grey. Juveniles are duller brown than adult females, possibly with a hint of a nuchal plume.

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 Tufted Duck is available HERE .

Tufted Ducks are a partly migratory Eurasian species. Part of the population, usually in temperate climate zones, is sedentary, while a large number of Tufted Ducks is migratory, spending the breeding season in subpolar, even polar, regions, while wintering in temperate to subtropical areas of both Europe and Asia. Their core range spans the entire breadth of Europe and Asia, from Iberia, Ireland and Iceland in the West, to far-eastern Asia (Korea, Japan, far eastern Siberia, Kamchatka) in the East. They are rarely seen in the Asian tropics, such as the southern half of the Indian continents and much of far South-east Asia. But Tufted Ducks do reach both North American coastlines - the East coast via the North Atlantic, the West coast by crossing the Bering Sea via the Aleutian islands.

In Europe Tufted Ducks are found as permanent residents basically only in central Europe (northward of the Alps, from the river Rhine eastwards to the Baltic states and as far northwards as Denmark and the southern Scandinavian coastline) and in western Europe (the Benelux countries, large parts of the British Isles and associated smaller islands). There is a small permanent population in the flatlands of the Po river in northern Italy. The migratory part of the population extends its breeding range during the summer months into almost all of Scandinavia (except the highest mountain regions), Spitsbergen and into north-eastern Europe, up to about the Arctic circle. The migratory population from the British Isles breeds in Iceland. Except for some select wetlands, Tufted Ducks are found only as winter visitors in most of France and all around the Mediterranean coastline. Also in the Danube valley and around the Black Sea they stay only during winter. They are NOT in much of northern Spain, the highest parts of the Alps and in the High Tatras. In other areas (large parts of south-eastern Europe and the southern half of Iberia), Tufted Ducks are found only during migration.

Being diving ducks, Tufted Ducks have a preference for wetlands with water that is not too shallow, allowing them to dive for food/prey, but otherwise are very versatile in their choice of habitat. They are found around both open lakes and more well-vegetated wetlands, around standing water, even in small puddles, but also slow-flowing rivers/creeks and in coastal wetlands.

D. Wilczynska reports Tufted Ducks in wetlands along the river Bug, near Brok, Masovia, Poland, in April 2017.

M. Eaton reports finding Tufted Ducks at Skjervoy, near Tromso, Norway, in June 2018.

H. Dahlem-Senger found a Tufted Duck on the river Rhine, near Eltville, Hessen, Germany, in April 2019. A pair was spotted at the Edersee, Hessen, Germany, in May 2026.

J. Pires reports finding Tufted Ducks occasionally during the winter months in various locations in southern and central Portugal.

M. Thomas reports spotting Tufted Ducks on Lake Constance, Germany, in April 2019.