Bufflehead

Bucephala albeola

The Bufflehead is a smallish diving duck that breeds in central Canada and Alaska. Except for a few locations in the coastal Pacific Northwest and southeastern Alaska, these ducks spend their winters in the USA and Mexico, though they’ve occasionally wandered across the Pacific Ocean to winter in Japan and Kamchatka, or east across the Atlantic Ocean into Greenland and Europe. Like their closest relatives the Goldeneyes, Buffleheads are tree cavity nesters, and their small size allows them to occupy cavities as small as those excavated by Northern Flickers, holes too small for their larger cousins to exploit. Unlike most ducks, Buffleheads pair-bond for many years, if not for life.

Most of my encounters with these lovely diminutive ducks have been in southern California, but I’ve also met them further north in California, in Oregon and southern Nevada.

Modern science considers the Bufflehead as monotypic (i.e. there are no subspecies).

Bufflehead - Bucephala albeola — **Bufflehead**
*(Bucephala albeola)*

**Description:**
Female. Klamath Falls, Southern Oregon.
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**Date Taken:** 2003:12:15 10:29

**Location:**

Klamath Falls
Klamath Falls, Oregon
United States
4081.56 ft above sea level

**Camera Information:**
NIKON D1X, 800 mm, f/5.6, 1/500

**File Name:** JCD_4432BuffleHead

© 2003 Jack Daynes, (shadetree-Imaging.com)

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Pin It — **Bufflehead**
*(Bucephala albeola)*

**Description:**
Female. Klamath Falls, Southern Oregon.
Read More

**Date Taken:** 2003:12:15 10:29

**Location:**

Klamath Falls
Klamath Falls, Oregon
United States
4081.56 ft above sea level

**Camera Information:**
NIKON D1X, 800 mm, f/5.6, 1/500

**File Name:** JCD_4432BuffleHead

© 2003 Jack Daynes, (shadetree-Imaging.com)

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