General

Canvasback: Large flashy diving duck with pale gray body, black breast and tail. Head is red-brown with long, sloping profile and long, dark bill. Female has gray breast, brown head and neck that is most dark on the crown and nape, most pale on chin, throat and eye line; mantle and breast are brown, pale brown-gray flanks, white belly, gray and vermiculated white scapulars, brown rump, vent and tail; primaries brown-gray, wing coverts are darker than male. Juvenile resembles female; eclipse male resembles breeding male, but is duller.

Range and Habitat

Canvasback: Breeds from Alaska south and east to Nebraska and Minnesota. Spends winters in coastal regions and interior west from British Columbia south and east from Massachusetts south to the Gulf Coast, across to the Mississippi Valley, and throughout the southern states. Nests on marshes; winters on lakes, bays, and estuaries.

Breeding and Nesting

Canvasback: Seven to twelve gray olive or green olive eggs are laid in a floating nest built by the female. The nest is a bulky bowl made of reeds and grass and anchored to the stems of marsh plants, lined with down. Incubation is for 23 to 29 days and is carried out by the female. The ducklings are able to fend for themselves when they can fly, at about 60 to 70 days.

Foraging and Feeding

Canvasback: These ducks forage in open water by diving from the surface and sometimes dabbling, mostly eating seeds, buds, leaves, tubers, roots, snails and insect larvae. They show a preference for the tubers of sago pondweed, which can make up their entire diet at times. When plant foods are limited, they eat small clams and snails. They feed by day or night.

Vocalization

Canvasback: Male grunts or croaks. Female makes a soft quack.

Similar Species

Canvasback: Redhead is smaller and lacks sloping profile; males have grayer sides.