Index of Species Information
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Aythya valisineria
Introductory
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Aythya valisineria
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION :
Tesky, Julie L. 1993. Aythya valisineria. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online].
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service,
Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer).
Available: www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/animals/bird/ayva/all.html [].
ABBREVIATION :
AYVA
COMMON NAMES :
canvasback
canvas-backed duck
can
TAXONOMY :
The currently recognized scientific name for the canvasback is Aythya
valisineria (Wilson). There are no recognized subspecies [1,3,8,19].
ORDER :
Anseriformes
CLASS :
Bird
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS :
No special status
OTHER STATUS :
Canvasback is noted in the Audobon Society's Blue List as a species of
special concern [20].
WILDLIFE DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Aythya valisineria
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION :
Canvasbacks breed from central Alaska and northern Yukon to western
Ontario and south to southeastern Alaska; and locally in inland areas to
northeastern California across to northern Utah, central New Mexico,
northernwestern Iowa, and southern Ontario. They winter from along the
Pacific Coast from the central Aleutians and southeastern Alaska south
to Baja California; from Arizona and New Mexico to the Great Lakes; and,
along the Atlantic Coast from New England south to the Gulf Coast and
Mexico [3,8]. Canvasbacks also occasionally winter in Cuba, Bermuda,
and Guatemala [12].
ECOSYSTEMS :
FRES10 White-red-jack pine
FRES11 Spruce-fir
FRES16 Oak-gum-cypress
FRES17 Elm-ash-cottonwood
FRES23 Fir-spruce
FRES28 Western hardwoods
FRES36 Mountain grasslands
FRES37 Mountain meadows
FRES38 Plains grasslands
FRES39 Prairie
FRES40 Desert grasslands
FRES41 Wet grasslands
FRES42 Annual grasslands
STATES :
| AL |
AK |
AZ |
AR |
CA |
CO |
CT |
DE |
FL |
GA |
| HI |
ID |
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
LA |
ME |
MD |
| MA |
MI |
MN |
MS |
MO |
MT |
NE |
NV |
NH |
NJ |
| NM |
NY |
NC |
ND |
OH |
OK |
OR |
PA |
RI |
SC |
| SD |
TN |
TX |
UT |
VT |
VA |
WA |
WV |
WI |
WY |
| AB |
BC |
MB |
NB |
NF |
NT |
NS |
ON |
PE |
PQ |
| SK |
YT |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS :
1 Northern Pacific Border
2 Cascade Mountains
3 Southern Pacific Border
4 Sierra Mountains
5 Columbia Plateau
6 Upper Basin and Range
7 Lower Basin and Range
8 Northern Rocky Mountains
9 Middle Rocky Mountains
10 Wyoming Basin
11 Southern Rocky Mountains
12 Colorado Plateau
13 Rocky Mountain Piedmont
14 Great Plains
15 Black Hills Uplift
16 Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS :
K047 Fescue - oatgrass
K048 California steppe
K049 Tule marshes
K050 Fescue - wheatgrass
K051 Wheatgrass - bluegrass
K054 Grama - tobosa prairie
K057 Galleta - three-awn shrubsteppe
K063 Foothills prairie
K064 Grama - needlegrass - wheatgrass
K065 Grama - buffalograss
K066 Wheatgrass - needlegrass
K067 Wheatgrass - bluestem - needlegrass
K068 Wheatgrass - grama - buffalograss
K069 Bluestem - grama prairie
K070 Sandsage - bluestem prairie
K072 Sea oats prairie
K073 Northern cordgrass prairie
K074 Bluestem prairie
K075 Nebraska Sandhills prairie
K076 Blackland prairie
K077 Bluestem - sacahuista prairie
K078 Southern cordgrass prairie
K079 Palmetto prairie
K080 Marl - everglades
K088 Fayette prairie
K092 Everglades
K094 Conifer bog
K105 Mangrove
SAF COVER TYPES :
95 Black willow
106 Mangrove
222 Black cottonwood - willow
235 Cottonwood - willow
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES :
NO-ENTRY
PLANT COMMUNITIES :
Canvasbacks are found on marshes or large lakes scattered throughout
boreal forests, on mixed prairies, and on the drier shortgrass prairies
[1]. Within these plant associations, canvasbacks often inhabit shallow
prairie marshes surrounded by bulrushes (Scirpus spp.), cattails (Typha
spp.), sedges (Carex spp.), reeds (Phragmites spp.), and other similar
emergent vegetation [1,8].
Canvasback nests are often located in pure stands of hardstem bulrush
(Scirpus acutus) or in hardstem bulrush mixed with cattail, burreed
(Sanguisorba spp.), or sedges [1,7]. In prairie pothole areas, cattails
are commonly used for nesting cover. At Lousana, Alberta, 29 percent of
canvasback nests were among flooded willows (Salix spp.); at Redvers,
Saskatchewan, 9 percent were among willows. On the Saskatchewan Delta,
most nests were located in reed [1].
During winter, beds of wild celery (Vallesniria spp.) in fresh water
habitats are heavily utilized by canvasbacks as are pondweeds
(Potamogeton spp.), widgeongrass (Ruppia maritima), and eelgrass
(Zostera marina) in more brackish areas. In the interior of the
continent, lakes and marshes with heavy growths of pondweeds and wild
celery provide major concentration points for canvasbacks [8].
REFERENCES :
NO-ENTRY
BIOLOGICAL DATA AND HABITAT REQUIREMENTS
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Aythya valisineria
TIMING OF MAJOR LIFE HISTORY EVENTS :
Pair bonding - Canvasback pair bonding takes place in late winter. Most
canvasbacks arrive on their breeding grounds already paired [12].
Nesting - Canvasbacks begin to nest in late April or early May [1].
Even in the subarctic, canvasbacks nest almost as early as in the
northern prairies [1]. The nesting season generally lasts from April to
June [1,12].
Clutch size/incubation - Determining the clutch size in canvasback nests
is complicated by the effect of redhead (Aythya americana) parasitism on
the number of host eggs. When redheads lay in canvasback nests, host
clutches are reduced in size. Clutches usually consist of 7 to 12 eggs
and average 9 1/2 in nonparasitized nests. Clutches are somewhat
smaller in parasitized nests [1,8]. Female canvasbacks seldom lay eggs
in the nests of other species but commonly parasitize the nests of other
canvasback hens [1].
The incubation period normally lasts about 24 days but sometimes as long
as 29 days [7,8]. The inclusion of eggs laid by other females sometimes
results in several unhatched eggs being left in the nest at the time of
general hatching [8].
Fledging - Fledging requires about 56 to 68 days [8].
Age at sexual maturity - Canvasbacks become sexually mature their first
winter [7,8].
Molting - Drakes begin to gather on molting grounds shortly after
females start incubation. Most have completed their prenuptual molt by
mid-October or early November. Hens begin to molt after leaving their
broods in the fall [7].
Migration/Fall - Canvasbacks begin to migrate into the Northern Great
Plains in early September. Numbers slowly build up to late October,
followed by rapid departures in early November. Canvasbacks in the east
arrive in the Great Lakes States in early October, reach peak numbers by
early November, and decline rapidly to wintering numbers by the end of
the month. Canvasbacks arrive on their winter grounds adjacent to the
central Gulf Coast in late November. Farther south on the lower Texas
coast, however, they arrive almost a month earlier [1]. They arrive on
winter grounds in central California in late October, and numbers
steadily increase through November and December. On winter grounds in
southern California, canvasbacks do not appear until late November and
rapidly increase in numbers through December [1].
Migration/spring - Canvasbacks begin departing many of their winter
areas in early February. On most winter areas, there is a steady
departure lasting almost to mid-April. On lakes midway to their
breeding grounds, canvasbacks appear in small numbers in late February,
with populations rapidly increasing through March. Canvasbacks begin to
arrive on the southern margins of their breeding grounds in the Great
Plains in early April [1].
PREFERRED HABITAT :
Breeding/nesting habitat - Canvasbacks breed and nest on large marshes,
ponds, sloughs, and potholes [1]. Pairs occupy the larger, deeper ponds
for feeding, resting, and courting but use the smaller, shallower ponds
for nesting. These ponds are usually less than an acre and are
encircled by bands of cattails and bulrushes. Brood ponds are
intermediate in size between those used for feeding and for nesting but
contain considerable marsh vegetation [1].
Canvasbacks usually nest over water 6 to 24 inches (15-60 cm) deep
[1,3]. They sometimes build their nests on muskrat houses and rarely on
dry ground. They attach the nest to surrounding plants or build it on a
mat of floating dead plants, generally 3 to 60 feet (0.9-18.3 m) from
the edge of open water [3,7].
Migration and winter habitat - Large lakes of 150 acres (61 ha) or more,
marshes, and rivers with submerged beds of pondweed are favored during
migration. Canvasbacks winter primarily on estuaries, sheltered bays,
coastal lagoons, and sometimes on deep freshwater lakes [3,8].
COVER REQUIREMENTS :
Canvasbacks select stands of emergent vegetation for nesting cover [7].
Canvasback broods seek the most open, the largest, and the deepest
potholes for their development [1].
FOOD HABITS :
Canvasbacks dive in shallow water, usually 3 to 12 feet (0.9-3.6 m)
deep, for food. Their diet generally consists of about 80 percent
vegetative matter [3]. In the northeastern United States, canvasbacks
prefer seeds and vegetative parts of wild celery; in the Southeast and
the West they primarily consume pondweeds. They also feed on bulrush
seeds, widgeongrass, eelgrass, arrowhead (Sagittaria spp.) and coontail
(Ceratophyllum demersum). Animal matter consumed by canvasbacks mostly
consists of mollusks, insects, fish, and mud crabs [1,3,10].
Management of food resources on canvasback staging areas must emphasize
wild celery and other plants that produce tubers, such as arrowhead and
pondweeds [10].
PREDATORS :
The heaviest nest destruction by predators commonly occurs during the
egg-laying period when the hen is off the nest [7]. Raccoons are the
most common predators of canvasback nests. In 1973 one study reported
that this predator was responsible for 60 percent of all canvasback
nests destroyed in the Minnesota potholes in Manitoba [1]. Skunks are
the second most important mammalian predator of canvasback nests in the
prairie breeding grounds. They are especially destructive in years when
water recedes from marginal marsh cover, leaving nests stranded on dry
ground, or when low water at the beginning of the nesting season
necessitates placing nests out of the water. Coyotes, foxes, minks,
weasels, crows, and magpies also prey upon canvasback nests [1].
Additionally coyotes, foxes, minks, and weasels prey on ducklings and
adults.
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
Of all the extensively distributed game ducks in North America, the
canvasback is the least abundant [1]. The canvasback population has
decreased due to habitat loss and overhunting [8]. In the 1930's the
population decreased after a series of drought years prevented any
reasonable breeding success. During the 1960's and 1970's the extensive
drainage of prairie marshes resulted in a decline in canvasbacks to an
estimated 500,000 individuals by the mid 1970's; a 50 percent reduction
of numbers estimated 20 years earlier. Canvasbacks have also been lost
due to oil spills in key wintering areas [12]. Current population
numbers were not found in the literature.
Desertion of canvasback nests is a far greater problem than in most
other waterfowl species. Hens desert their nest because of flooding or
brood parasitism by redheads and other canvasbacks. Heavy rains on
small potholes or wind tides on large marshes often raise the water
faster than the hens are able to build up the nest platforms [1].
REFERENCES :
NO-ENTRY
FIRE EFFECTS AND USE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Aythya valisineria
DIRECT FIRE EFFECTS ON ANIMALS :
Canvasback nests can be destroyed by fire during the nesting season [5].
During a spring fire in the Manitoba pothole region a canvasback nest
was destroyed by fire that swept over emergent vegetation. The nest was
located 25 feet (7.6 m) from dry land in 24 inches (64 cm) of water [5].
Ducklings and molting adults are vulnerable to fire. Nonmolting adults
can probably easily escape fire.
HABITAT RELATED FIRE EFFECTS :
Fire can remove canvasback nesting cover [5]. Large-scale autumn
burning may have a detrimental effect upon marshes by reducing the
retention of drifting snow, which adds heavily to spring run-off. The
ability of marsh vegetation to catch and hold snow is vital to marsh
survival [17].
Fire can also improve the habitat for canvasbacks. Fire often removes
excessive accumulations of fast-growing hydrophytes, permitting better
waterfowl access and growth of more desirable duck foods [16].
FIRE USE :
Fire can be used to remove fast-growing, undesirable species and
increase desirable canvasback foods such as pondweed [15]. Controlled
burning can also be used to create nesting edge for ducks. Removal of
dense vegetation and woody encroachment is vital if prairie marshes are
to remain in this successional state [17]. According to Ward [17],
spring burning in marshlands is primarily done to remove vegetation and
create more nesting edge. Summer fires are used to create more
permanent changes in the plant community.
Burning should be completed well before or after the nesting season to
avoid destroying nesting cover and nests of canvasbacks [17]. Land
managers who burn during the nesting season should consider partial
burns. Partial burns will probably have less impact on total vegetation
changes but should result in higher recruitment of waterfowl than would
complete burning [18].
FIRE REGIMES :
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find Fire Regimes".
REFERENCES :
NO-ENTRY
REFERENCES
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Aythya valisineria
REFERENCES :
1. Bellrose, Frank C. 1980. Ducks, geese and swans of North America.
Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books. 3rd ed. 540 p. [19802]
2. Bernard, Stephen R.; Brown, Kenneth F. 1977. Distribution of mammals,
reptiles, and amphibians by BLM physiographic regions and A.W. Kuchler's
associations for the eleven western states. Tech. Note 301. Denver, CO:
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. 169 p.
[434]
3. DeGraaf, Richard M.; Scott, Virgil E.; Hamre, R. H.; [and others]. 1991.
Forest and rangeland birds of the United States: Natural history and
habitat use. Agric. Handb. 688. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service. 625 p. [15856]
4. Eyre, F. H., ed. 1980. Forest cover types of the United States and
Canada. Washington, DC: Society of American Foresters. 148 p. [905]
5. Fritzell, Erik K. 1975. Effects of agricultural burning on nesting
waterfowl. Canadian Field-Naturalist. 89: 21-27. [14635]
6. Garrison, George A.; Bjugstad, Ardell J.; Duncan, Don A.; [and others].
1977. Vegetation and environmental features of forest and range
ecosystems. Agric. Handb. 475. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service. 68 p. [998]
7. Hochbaum, H. Albert. 1959. The canvasback on a prairie marsh.
Harrisburg, PA: The Stackpole Company. 207 p. [20639]
8. Johnsgard, Paul A. 1979. A guide to North American waterfowl.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. 274 p. [20026]
9. Johnson, Douglas H.; Grier, James W. 1988. Determinants of breeding
distribution of ducks. Wildlife Monographs. 100: 1-37. [21350]
10. Korschgen, Carl E.; George, Louis S.; Green, William L. 1988. Feeding
ecology of canvasbacks staging on Pool 7 of the Upper Mississippi River.
In: Weller, Milton W., ed. Waterfowl in winter. Minneapolis, MN:
University of Minnesota Press: 237-249. [20640]
11. Kuchler, A. W. 1964. Manual to accompany the map of potential vegetation
of the conterminous United States. Special Publication No. 36. New York:
American Geographical Society. 77 p. [1384]
12. Madge, Steve; Burn, Hilary. 1988. Waterfowl: An indentification guide to
the ducks, geese and swans of the world. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin
Company. 298 p. [20029]
13. Martz, Gerald F. 1967. Effects of nesting cover removal on breeding
puddle ducks. Journal of Wildlife Management. 31(2): 236-247. [16284]
14. Musgrove, Jack W.; Musgrove, Mary R. 1943. Waterfowl in Iowa. Des
Moines, IA: State Convservation Committee. 113 p. + index. [20028]
15. Schlichtemeier, Gary. 1967. Marsh burning for waterfowl. In:
Proceedings, 6th annual Tall Timbers fire ecology conference; 1967 March
6-7; Tallahassee, FL. No. 6. Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research
Station: 40-46. [16450]
16. Vogl, Richard J. 1967. Controlled burning for wildlife in Wisconsin. In:
Proceedings, 6th annual Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference; 1967 March
6-7; Tallahassee, FL. No. 6. Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research
Station: 47-96. [18726]
17. Ward, P. 1968. Fire in relation to waterfowl habitat of the delta
marshes. In: Proceedings, annual Tall Timbers fire ecology conference;
1968 March 14-15; Tallahassee, FL. No. 8. Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers
Research Station: 255-267. [18932]
18. Kruse, Arnold D.; Piehl, James L. 1986. The impact of prescribed burning
on ground-nesting birds. In: Clambey, Gary K.; Pemble, Richard H., eds.
The prairie: past, present and future: Proceedings, 9th North American
prairie conference; 1984 July 29 - August 1; Moorhead, MN. Fargo, ND:
Tri-College University Center for Environmental Studies: 153-156.
[3561]
19. Donohoe, Robert W. 1974. American hornbeam Carpinus caroliniana Walt.
In: Gill, John D.; Healy, William M., eds. Shrubs and vines for
northeastern wildlife. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-9. Upper Darby, PA: U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest
Experiment Station: 86-88. [13714]
20. Tate, James, Jr. 1986. The Blue List for 1986. American Birds. 40(2):
227-235. [24324]
FEIS Home Page
