Goldeneye and Whistler, are common names for a species of small tree-hole nesting northern hemisphere seaducks belonging to the genus Bucephala. The plumage is black and white. Goldeneyes eat fish, crustaceans and other marine life. The "Whistler" name comes from the noise their beating wings make in flight.^[1]

The Bufflehead was formerly separated in its own genus Charitonetta, while the goldeneyes proper were mistakenly placed in Clangula (as Clangula americana), the genus of the Long-tailed Duck which at that time was placed in Harelda.^[2]

The three living species are

• Common Goldeneye Bucephala clangula - They have black bills. Males have a very dark green head, with a white spot near their bill, under their eye. Females have brown heads.^[1]
• Barrow's Goldeneye Bucephala islandica
• Bufflehead Bucephala albeola

Known fossil taxa are:

• Bucephala cereti (Sajóvölgyi Middle Miocene of Mátraszõlõs, Hungary - Late Pliocene of Chilhac, France)
• Bucephala ossivalis (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Bone Valley, USA), which was very similar to the Common Goldeneye and may even have been a paleosubspecies or direct ancestor
• Bucephala fossilis (Late Pliocene of California, USA)
• Bucephala angustipes (Early Pleistocene of C Europe)
• Bucephala sp. (Early Pleistocene of Dursunlu, Turkey: Louchart et al. 1998)

References

• Louchart, Antoine; Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile; Guleç, Erksin; Howell, Francis Clark & White, Tim D. (1998): L'avifaune de Dursunlu, Turquie, Pléistocène inférieur: climat, environnement et biogéographie. C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris IIA 327(5): 341-346. [French with English abridged version] doi:10.1016/S1251-8050(98)80053-0 (HTML abstract)

Media related to Bucephala at Wikimedia Commons

External link

• Common Goldeneye at Birdzilla