Here is a picture of a Hardhead duck taken by Andrea Weber at Maleny Botanic Gardens.  

Hardheads are the only true diving duck in Australia and are commonly found throughout the region. Like the other members of the pochard group, hardheads feed by diving deeply, often staying submerged for as long as a minute at a time. 

They slip under the water with barely a ripple, simply lowering their heads and thrusting with their powerful webbed feet. 

They eat a broad range of small aquatic creatures, and supplement this with water weeds. 

The males have white eyes making them easy to distinguish. 

The common name “hardhead” has nothing to do with the density of the bird’s skull, instead referring to the difficulty encountered by early taxidermists in processing the head (ewww!).

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