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).

Incubation, which lasts 28 to 30 days, begins only after all the eggs have been laid. This ensures that the eggs hatch simultaneously. However, even before the eggs hatch, the male leaves the territory to molt with others of his kind, often hundreds of kilometers 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.