Erwin resident Joe McGuiness, who is also a fellow member of the Elizabethton Bird Club, alerted me recenntly to the presence of a canvasback drake at a pond along the town’s linear trail.

This duck was with a couple of redheads, also a species of duck, in the pond spanned by a boardwalk in the industrial park on the south side of Erwin. Some birds hold special meaning with me. Although its a natural question for a bird lover to be asked, I have difficulty pinpointing a single bird as my favorite. One of my overall favorite birds is the Northern cardinal. Among the summer-visiting warblers, the hooded warbler has long been my favorite. With shorebirds, the marbled godwit has long been at the top of my rankings. My favorite bird of prey is the American kestrel or, as I first learned of this raptor in the little “Golden Guide to Birds,” the sparrow hawk. Among owls, I have a soft spot for Eastern screech-owls.

I have a favorite duck, too. It’s the canvasback, which is a species of waterfowl that I don’t see very often, which makes observations even more special. I saw my first canvasback in the mid 1990s during a winter visit with my parents to Wilbur Lake near Elizabethton, Tennessee. We always liked visiting this small reservoir during the colder months to view the buffleheads and any other ducks that happened to visit this small mountain lake. On this particular occasion, a flock of redheads had also arrived. While viewing these ducks, we noticed a member of the flock that looked different from the others. Specifically, it was larger and whiter than the redheads. After a brief consultation with my copy of Roger Tory Peterson’s “A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America,” I identified my very first canvasback.

Since that time, I’ve observed canvasbacks at other locations in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia. It’s been awhile, but I have observed these ducks at Osceola Island Recreation Area below Holston Dam and at Musick’s Campground at South Holston Lake. Back in January and February of 2014, some canvasbacks took a liking to the pond at Erwin Fishery Park. I’ve also observed canvasbacks on the Watauga River in Elizabethton and on the Holston River in Kingsport. I saw eight canvasbacks on Feb. 22, 2015, on the Watauga River, not very far from where I saw my very first one back in the 1990s. The flock, which consisted of all males, represented a rather high number for this duck in the region.

Recent winter storms that have plowed through the region have brought some unusual ducks. A few days before he notified me of the canvasback, Joe also informed me about a pair of Northern shovelers at Erwin Fishery Park.

A male canvasback is unmistakably regal with a sloping profile that instantly distinguishes it from other ducks. Males, or drakes, have chestnut-red heads, white bodies, black breasts and rears and bright red eyes. The distinctive bill is also black. Females, like many other ducks, are drab and brown but share the distinctive bill, helping to separate them from such relatives as female redheads.

The canvasback is also a fairly large duck with males reaching a body length of 21 inches. Females are only an inch shorter in body length. Drakes weigh an average of 2.7 pounds while hens can weigh 2.5 pounds.

Canvasback breed in prairie potholes in the western United States and Canada. I got the chance to see many of these ducks in their nesting habitat during a trip to Utah in May of 2006. My visit provided very memorable observations of large flocks of these impressive diving ducks. I found them in temporary ponds in flooded fields. Utah had enjoyed abundant rainfall that spring, which was no doubt welcomed by breeding ducks. The trip also yielded observations of such ducks as cinnamon teal, redhead, red-breasted mergansers, ring-necked ducks and gadwalls, as well as other unique wetland-loving species as white-faced ibis, yellow-headed blackbird and Wilson’s phalarope.

During winter, the canvasback usually prefers large open bodies of water, including lakes, ponds and sheltered bays. These ducks are largely vegetarian, although they do consume some animal matter, including insect larvae, snails and other mollusks. This duck’s scientific name, Aythya valisineria, which refers to a species of plant that canvasbacks consume in great quantities. Vallisneria americana, which is often called wild celery or water-celery, doesn’t resemble the vegetable known as celery. These wild plants are long, limp and flat, which led to other common names such as “tape grass” and “eelgrass.”

The canvasback is member of the genus, Aythya, which is comprised of a dozen species of diving ducks. The other members of the genus in North America include greater scaup, lesser scaup, redhead and ring-necked duck. The related tufted duck is a rare visitor to the United States. They’re described diving ducks because they dive under the surface to search for food, rather than dabble around pond edges and shorelines like the ducks known as “dabblers.”

Two members of the genus — Madagascan pochard and Baer’s pochard — are endangered species. In March of 2013, a survey found the population of the Madagascan pochard was about 80 individuals. When surveys found a worldwide population of perhaps fewer than 1,000 individuals, Baer’s pochard was reclassified as “critically endangered” in 2012. The canvasback has never declined to the low levels of these relatives, but it has been a bird that has required some protective oversight from the federal government. At times, this has included exemptions from duck hunting seasons.

Canvasback populations are stronger these days but haven’t been robust for quite some time. According to the Duck Unlimited website, the population of this stately duck has seen some improvement. In 2009, a population survey by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife showed an increase in canvasbacks from 488,000 to 662,000 individuals. According to the Ducks Unlimited website, this population spike took place in the wake of a hunting ban on canvasbacks during the 2008-09 waterfowl season.

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To share a sighting, ask a question or make a comment, email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.