Courtesy Preview
To view this account in its entirety (complete life history articles, audio, video, photo content and full references), you will need to sign in with your subscription account information. You can subscribe online and gain immediate access to this additional information in this species account.
Sounds
Vocalizations
Development
No information available.
Vocal Array
Usually silent. Males appear to vocalize only during courtship, producing variations of a single, short, faint call, peent; uttered during several of courtship displays, including Head-throw and Bowsprit (see Behavior: sexual behavior). Males also utter a grunting sound during Postcopulatory Steaming (see Behavior: sexual behavior). Female gives a harsh croak, gack, when disturbed; during nest-prospecting or when circling a lake, may produce a series of short cuk calls (vocalizations summarized in Palmer 1976b; MLM).
Daily Pattern Of Vocalizing
Little information available. Females are frequently heard vocalizing in early morning or late afternoon when prospecting for nest sites (Eadie and Gauthier 1985).
Places Of Vocalizing
Most vocalizations are given on water. Females call when flushed or approaching a lake, or in flight during nest-searching.
Repertoire And Delivery Of Songs
No information.
Nonvocal Sounds
Wings can produce a loud whistling noise in flight, giving rise to the colloquial name “whistler.”
Eadie, J. M., M. L. Mallory and H. G. Lumsden. 1995. Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/170
