White-backed duck, Morillon à dos blanc (French), Pato lomo blanco (Spanish), Pato coacoxtle (Mexico)
The canvasback (Aythya valisineria) is a species of diving duck, the largest found in North America. It is also one of the most powerful fliers. The part of its scientific name valisineria comes from the wild celery, whose winter buds and rhizomes are the canvasback's preferred food during the nonbreeding period. The duck's common name is based on early European inhabitants of North America's assertion that its back was a canvas-like color.
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DiurnalDiurnal animals are active during the daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The timing of activity by an animal depends ...
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OmnivoreAn omnivore is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and ani...
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NatatorialNatatorial animals are those adapted for swimming. Some fish use their pectoral fins as the primary means of locomotion, sometimes termed labriform...
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CongregatoryCongregatory animals tend to gather in large numbers in specific areas as breeding colonies, for feeding, or for resting.
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OviparousOviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
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PrecocialPrecocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. Precocial species are normall...
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WaterfowlWaterfowl are certain wildfowl of the order Anseriformes, especially members of the family Anatidae, which includes ducks, geese, and swans. They ...
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AquaticAn aquatic animal is an animal, either vertebrate or invertebrate, which lives in water for most or all of its life. It may breathe air or extract ...
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Serial monogamySerial monogamy is a mating system in which a pair bonds only for one breeding season.
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Highly socialHighly social animals are those which are highly interactive with other members of their species. They live in large groups, nest in colonies, and ...
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FlockingFlocking birds are those that tend to gather to forage or travel collectively. Avian flocks are typically associated with migration. Flocking also ...
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MigratingAnimal migration is the relatively long-distance movement of individual animals, usually on a seasonal basis. It is the most common form of migrati...
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starts withThe canvasback has a distinctive wedge-shaped head and a long graceful neck. The adult male (drake) has a black bill, a chestnut red head and neck, a black breast, a grayish back, a black rump, and a blackish brown tail. The drake's sides, back, and belly are white with fine vermiculation resembling the weave of a canvas, which gave rise to the bird's common name. The bill is blackish and the legs and feet are bluish-gray. The iris is bright red in the spring, but duller in the winter. The adult female also has a black bill, a light brown head and neck, grading into a darker brown chest and foreback. The sides, flanks, and back are grayish brown. The bill is blackish and the legs and feet are bluish-gray. Its sloping profile distinguishes it from other ducks.
Canvasbacks are found in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. They migrate through the Mississippi Flyway to wintering grounds in the mid-Atlantic United States and the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV), or the Pacific Flyway to wintering grounds along the coast of California. Brackish estuarine bays and marshes with abundant submerged vegetation and invertebrates are ideal wintering habitats for canvasbacks.
Canvasbacks are highly social birds and gather in large flocks that may contain up to thousands of individuals. However, with the start of the breeding season, they become more aggressive. Canvasbacks spend most of their time in the water and seldom come on land; they also sleep on the water. Canvasback feed by day mainly by diving, sometimes dabbling. The birds have large webbed feet adapted for diving and their bill helps them dig tubers from the substrate. Canvasbacks are usually quiet but will produce a number of calls when alarmed or during courtship displays.
Canvasbacks are omnivores. They feed on various seeds, buds, leaves, tubers, roots, snails, and insect larvae.
Canvasbacks are serially monogamous, meaning they form pairs only for one breeding season in late winter. During this time males perform courtship displays to attract the female. Canvasbacks prefer to nest over water on permanent prairie marshes surrounded by emergent vegetation, such as cattails and bulrushes, which provide protective cover. The bulky nest is built from vegetation in a marsh and lined with down. The female lays a clutch size of approximately 5-11 greenish drab eggs. After females have laid their eggs, the males leave their mates and gather in large flocks on lakes to molt and are unable to fly for 2 weeks. Females incubate their eggs for about 24-28 days. The ducklings hatch precocial; they are covered in down at hatching and able to leave the nest soon after. A day after hatching the female will lead her into larger bodies of water with abundant emergent vegetation where they will remain until its time to migrate. Young canvasbacks fledge at the age of 10-11 weeks and become reproductively mature when they are 1 year old.
Canvasbacks are not threatened at present but they are particularly vulnerable to drought and wetland drainage on the prairies of North America.
According to the IUCN Red List, the total population size of the canvasback is 690,000 mature individuals. Currently, this species is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, and its numbers today are increasing.
