Common Goldeneye Courtship

I had the opportunity this week to watch the elaborate Common Goldeneye courtship ritual. They mated twice in about 20 minutes, but who's counting? If you haven't seen the spectacle, it can be quite complex, with both the drake and the hen performing several ritualized displays.

One of the more common displays is the head-throw, usually performed by the drake when he snaps back his head, rests it on his back, and sometimes makes a peent call. The photo below shows a drake performing this move while a very interested hen looks on. The head-throw is common amongst some duck species looking to "get it on!"

Head-throw: Drake snaps back his head while hen watches intently

Sometimes, the head-throw is followed by a quick leg-kick. The male I watched this week didn't perform that move, at least not while I was watching, but I photographed one performing it last March.

Leg-kick: Drake performing the leg-kick

Both the drake and the hen will perform an assortment of moves that involve variations on crouching low and extending the head outward and/or upward.

Hen crouches low

Hen crouches low and stretches her neck up

Having a messy drink of water. I think she likes it!

Drake performs drink and neck stretch upward while hen crouches low in prone position

Eventually, the hen assumes a prone position, floating around while she watches the drake perform. With the pair I watched this week, the hen floated prone for at least 5 minutes, waiting for the drake to get on with it! In addition to head stretches, this drake frequently pointed its bill down into the water and then flicked water at the prone hen.

Drake preparing to flick water at the hen

Flick!

Drake flicks water at hen. One of my favourite shots from the day.

Drake preparing the water flick!

Water flick!

The drake performed this water flicking multiple times

Sometimes he flicked more water on himself than on his partner.

Soon after, the drake moved up alongside the hen, preparing to mount her. The mounting happened very quickly. During this stage, the male attempts to grab the female's head feathers in his bill. This drake had some troubles getting a good grip. Meanwhile, the poor hen was completely submerged.

A little leg stretch before the big performance!

The drake had some troubles getting a good grip on her head feathers

Eventually, he was able to pull up her head so she could breath!

It looks a little aggressive in single photos, but it wasn't that way in real time

Once he had a good grip, the two pulled back and pointed themselves to the sky. Then the twirling began!

Twirling - She's lifting up as much as he's pulling up.

Twirling

Twirling

Twirling

After a few twirls, which involved the drake shifting his body perpendicular to the hen, they separated. The drake quickly swam away with his head and neck fully extended upward while the hen went under for a wash, then had a good wing flap to dry off.

Off he goes!

Post-copulatory wash and dry.

This wasn't the end of things. Soon after they uncoupled, a competing male started sneaking over towards the female. Her partner wasn't going to have any of that! A violent bout of splashes erupted until the competitor gave up and swam away.

Get away from my hen!

Photographing the Courtship
A word about my experience photographing this ritual. The conditions were quite good, with the sun providing strong light (perhaps too strong) and giving the water nice colour. If this had happened even a half hour earlier, the sun wouldn't have been quite so bright, which might have helped even out the highlights and shadows. While strong morning sunlight can make for intense colours, it can also make for very uneven exposures, wth a mix of blown highlights and black shadows. The strong sunlight was especially interesting for the effect it had on the drake's head colour, which changed from various shades of bright and dark green to dark purple and almost black. Thankfully, most of the performance happened in water that was reflecting dark colours with the sun directly at my back, or at least almost so.

If you're out birding for ducks over the next weeks, keep an eye out for ducks performing their courtship rituals. And have your camera ready! Just snap away keeping focused on the action and you're bound to get a few good shots.

According to these Common Goldeneyes, spring can't be too far away!