Male Common Pochard

Male Common Pochard on a small inland lake, Winter, Derbyshire UK. Lying at water level for several hours is not the most comfortable activity but well worth it to get right down to eye level with the birds and minimise distractions. Here I waited for the red head of the pochard to mirror with the reflected brick work behind.

Male Common Pochard : More About the Common Pochard

Contrary to the name ‘common pochard’ these stunning birds are actually quite rare breeding birds in the UK, estimated at just 681 pairs. Over the Winter months the population gets a huge boost to nearly 80,000 birds from the continent, hoping to escape the extremely harsh conditions in Eastern Europe and Russia. During this time Pochards are very distinctive and have a reddish brown head, black chest and mottled grey body. During the Summer months they are much more similar in appearance to the easily confused females  which are brown with a greyish body.

More information on the common pochard can be found on the RSPB website.