28 December 2025

The painted bunting was not the only thing seen last week but it grabbed the headlines. In other news the Winter Solstice was unusually sunny (photos above and below) and I saw an Infrequent duck at Duck Hollow on Christmas Eve.

The common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) is a relatively small duck, closely related to buffleheads. The female has a chocolate brown head, a golden tip on her beak, and of course a golden eye. All three tipped me off to her identity.

Common goldeneyes are far from abundant in the Pittsburgh area but actually common in Canada in the breeding season and at the Great Lakes and waterways in the American West in winter as shown on their North American abundance map below.

I had thought that, like buffleheads, goldeneyes were only found in North America but I saw them in Finland last summer. In fact they have a disjoint range on three continents as viewed from the North Pole: Europe, Asia and North America.

Common there, but not here.