Barrow's Goldeneye - Bucephala islandica

Identification Tips:

1. Length: 13 inches Wingspan: 31 inches
2. Medium-sized diving duck
3. Yellow eye
4. Steeply sloped forehead with flatter crown and peak at forward part of crown
5. Small, stubby bill
6. White patches on the secondaries and secondary coverts visible in flight
7. Juvenile similar to adult female but usually with darker bill

Adult male alternate:

1. Alternate plumage worn from fall through early summer
2. Glossy purplish head
3. Crescent-shaped white patch between eye and bill
4. White neck, breast and belly
5. Dark back
6. Black scapulars with row of rectangular white spots
7. Dark tail, upper- and under-tail coverts
8. White patch on wing split by black bar

Adult male basic:

1. Eclipse-plumage male like adult female but with darker bill and sometimes darker head

Adult female:

1. Usually has an all-yellow bill
2. White patch on wing split by two black bars
3. Reddish-brown head
4. Gray body plumage, paler on the breast and darker on the back

Similar species: