Barrow's goldeneye

The reproductive season begins in November when the male in his breeding plumage tries to attract the female. Courtship displays and mating activity are frequent during the entire winter on the St. Lawrence. Early in May, the couple makes a short migration inland, a little to the north, into the boreal forest. Generally, the breeding area includes a small headwater lake or a pond, full of aquatic invertebrates, which the adults fiercely defend. The female nests in a cavity, usually in a hole in a large tree, although she quite happily will use a nesting box. After readying the nest by herself, she lays four to a dozen eggs (an average of six), but only starts incubating them after the last egg is laid, so that all the eggs hatch at once. She sits on the eggs for 28 to 30 days. The male leaves the nesting area even before the eggs hatch, to moult with other males of the species, 1,000 kilometres to the north. Shortly after the eggs hatch, the female duck encourages the ducklings to leave the nest and leads them to the ‘protected' lake where they will find the food they need for growth. The female stays with her ducklings for six weeks, and the young ducks fly two weeks after her departure. All the goldeneyes meet up again in their wintering areas in November. Generally, in bird species where the male does not help raise the young, the couple mates for only one season. Male and female Barrow's goldeneyes, however, can sometimes meet and form a couple again on the wintering range after being separated for four months.