The Common Pochard

Common Pochard

The Common Pochard (Aythya ferina) breed in Europe and Asia east to Japan. The northern populations are migratory birds and the birds spend the winter as far south as tropical Africa, India and Southeast Asia. Those who nest farther south are resident birds.

The Common Pochard needs large and nutritious open water with depths of maximum six meters. It needs plenty of macrophytes that grow below the surface and surrounding vegetation that protrudes above the surface. It breeds in lakes with salty, brackish or fresh water as well as in soda lakes, marshes or slow-flowing rivers.

The Common Pochard is an omnivore that lives by seeds, roots and other parts of wet plants as well as aquatic insects and larvae, molluscs, crustaceans, worms, amphibians and small fish. It is a diving duck that pick water plants from the bottom of the lake.