Cheap Thrills Among Ducks

A solstice ritual of courtship in icy waters

Dec 17, 2025

Male Bufflehead / © Cello Caruso-Turiello / via iNaturalist / CC-BY

ON the coldest days of the year, even on the shortest day of the year, ducks in frigid waters are engaged in one of winter’s great performances: full-frontal courtship.

You can watch.

Take the Buffleheads I noticed frolicking recently in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Maine. At a glance or from a distance, Buffleheads appear black and white and inornate. But in the clean light of winter, the male’s head glows iridescent purple and green — proof that even scarce light is giving light and that rarely are things in the world so black and white.

Those colors alone won’t secure him a mate, so males compete among one another and perform for females. But why now in icy waters? After all, Bufflehead pairs will migrate north in spring to breed at lakes and ponds scattered across much of Canada and into Alaska. They nest in abandoned woodpecker holes, mostly those excavated by Northern Flickers. (It’s a reminder that any of us, from time to time, rely for our well-being on folks we’ve never met.)

Northern Flicker – Homebuilder for Bufflehead / © Bryan Pfeiffer

But the breeding season in the north is short, and flicker nest cavities and potential mates can be scattered and scarce. So Buffleheads get courtship and pair bonding out of the way now so that they’ll have more time for the business of breeding come spring. Moreover, in these wintering flocks, a female Bufflehead has a greater selection of males from which to choose — good for her.

There’s no reason for me to describe the courtship for you here — I’ve got videos and a bigger point to make for you below; the production is way better seen in person anyway. (For paying subscribers I’ve posted map links on our Sightings page to help get you to the show). Suffice it to say that the performance features comical head pumping and dipping, short flights and wing flapping, splashing and diving.

And yet for all their gyrations and antics, here’s something you should also know about male Buffleheads, which is also true for lots of other male ducks: they’re “deadbeat dads.” On the northern breeding grounds, once mating is complete males depart for the season, leaving females alone to incubate eggs and care for young. No surprise — females often bear a disproportionate burden in reproduction.

Still, there may be more to the male’s winter courtship displays than his prospecting for a new spring fling. In some cases, the performance leads to a reunion. Although they live separately and apart after breeding, a given male and female might migrate independently in fall to the very same waters where they first met. And there they can start again. Even in a flock where everyone more or less looks alike, the male and female can find one another and renew their bond. (Think about that the next time you can’t find your car in the parking lot or remember the name of an acquaintance.)

Although it’s difficult for biologists to study this kind of year-to-year monogamy among remote northern ducks, it’s been documented in Bufflehead and its close relative Barrow’s Goldeneye (it’s probably so with the widespread Common Goldeneye as well). Regardless, many of you can watch courtship displays among various duck species at unfrozen lakes, ponds scattered across southern Canada, the U.S., northern Mexico, and much Europe, including the U.K, and in calm coastal bays.

After all, here in the Northern Hemisphere, the shortest day of the year is upon us. Darkness and injustice seem all-too-common, including new and terrible gun violence around the world this past week. And yet now is a time for ritual and renewal. It might be a bonfire on the winter solstice, an observance of faith, or a gathering of family and friends.

Or maybe even a raft of waterfowl.

Buffleheads certainly won’t cure the world. Only we can do that. But for me, even on the darkest days of the year, my ritual and my faith also lie in what’s here and now in nature, not the least of which features amorous ducks in icy waters.