{"id":55129,"date":"2018-11-26T05:56:18","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T12:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=55129"},"modified":"2025-09-14T05:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T10:11:12","slug":"drake-common-goldeneyes-in-a-brief-territorial-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/11\/26\/drake-common-goldeneyes-in-a-brief-territorial-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake Common Goldeneyes In A Brief Territorial Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DrakeDrake Common Goldeneyes in a territorial fight – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

So far this season I have only seen one Common Goldeneye at my local pond but hopefully in a short period of time I will be seeing many more of them and I am excited about the possibility of that because not only are they handsome ducks they are also fun to photograph especially when they are feeding, displaying or fighting.<\/p>\n

Last December I was able to photograph two Common Goldeneye drakes during a brief territorial dispute over a feeding territory. I noticed one of the drakes in a threat display, focused on that bird and then in a split second the water was splashing and the drakes were fighting.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Common Goldeneye being chased – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The drake Common Goldeneye in the back seemed to quickly assert his dominance while the one in the front was trying hard to get away from it. I believe that the drake in front was the intruder into the other’s feeding territory because it was the one being chased.<\/p>\n

\"OneOne drake Common Goldeneye in hot pursuit of another drake – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The drake Common Goldeneyes didn’t have any physical contact that I could see because that often happens under the water but the drake in the back seemed intent on making the one in the front leave the area. I do wish I would have had a bit more depth of field so that both birds would have been sharply in focus but I would have lost some shutter speed and believe me, this action happens quickly and I needed the shutter speed I had at the time.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Common Goldeneye at the end of a chase – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of the chase the intruding drake kept moving across the water and out of the reach of the other male who had stopped the pursuit. This male was still keeping at least one golden eye on the other drake in case it started to pursue it again.<\/p>\n

\"CalmCalm drake Common Goldeneye – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of the brief fight both Common Goldeneye drakes settled down and went back to floating calmly on the water while searching for prey. By that point in time you wouldn’t have known about their skirmish if you hadn’t seen it with your own eyes.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. Birds make it interesting.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Common Goldeneye photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The drake Common Goldeneyes didn’t have any physical contact that I could see because that often happens under the water but the drake in the back seemed intent on making the one in the front leave the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,962,709,117,26],"tags":[4238,4284,4520,4753,6230,1129,126,4743,6348,5586,1149,6894,5418,6893,2063],"class_list":["post-55129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-common-goldeneyes","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-ducks","category-utah","tag-bucephala-clangula","tag-chase","tag-common-goldeneye","tag-diving-ducks","tag-drakes","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-fight","tag-goldeneye","tag-goldeneyes","tag-males","tag-pursuit","tag-territorial-behavior","tag-territorial-chase","tag-waterfowl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-fight-mia-mcpherson-4114.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-elb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":62630,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/14\/photographing-drake-common-goldeneyes-in-a-territorial-dispute\/","url_meta":{"origin":55129,"position":0},"title":"Photographing Drake Common Goldeneyes In A Territorial Dispute","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday afternoon I was thrilled to be able to photograph two adult drake Common Goldeneyes in a territorial dispute on a pond as they moved across my field of view.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Common Goldeneye running on water","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-drake-running-on-water-mia-mcpherson-2883.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-drake-running-on-water-mia-mcpherson-2883.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-drake-running-on-water-mia-mcpherson-2883.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-drake-running-on-water-mia-mcpherson-2883.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54672,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/10\/20\/common-goldeneye-drakes-close-to-home-december-2017\/","url_meta":{"origin":55129,"position":1},"title":"Common Goldeneye Drakes Close To Home – December 2017","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I only see Common Goldeneyes in northern Utah during their nonbreeding season because they breed well north of here so I get a touch excited when they show up at my local pond.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Common Goldeneye drake on the last day of 2017, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-drake-flapping-mia-mcpherson-4362.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-drake-flapping-mia-mcpherson-4362.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-drake-flapping-mia-mcpherson-4362.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-drake-flapping-mia-mcpherson-4362.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":107941,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/11\/12\/my-first-of-season-common-goldeneye\/","url_meta":{"origin":55129,"position":2},"title":"My First Of Season Common Goldeneye","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I found my first of season Common Goldeneye near a stand of rushes while walking around a local pond after a light skiff of snow had fallen overnight.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"First of season drake Common Goldeneye in Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/common-goldeneye-fos-mia-mcpherson-3471.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/common-goldeneye-fos-mia-mcpherson-3471.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/common-goldeneye-fos-mia-mcpherson-3471.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/common-goldeneye-fos-mia-mcpherson-3471.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":118604,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/28\/first-of-season-common-goldeneye\/","url_meta":{"origin":55129,"position":3},"title":"First Of Season Common Goldeneye","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Three days ago, I found my first-of-season Common Goldeneye drake at my local pond. I didn't have my camera with me, so I wasn't able to photograph him.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Drake Common Goldeneye settling down, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/common-goldeneye-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-7243.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/common-goldeneye-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-7243.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/common-goldeneye-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-7243.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/common-goldeneye-drake-winter-mia-mcpherson-7243.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":49819,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/13\/common-goldeneyes-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":55129,"position":4},"title":"Common Goldeneyes in Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The number of birds in a specific location can increase and decrease substantially from one day to the next and that happened with Common Goldeneyes at my local pond in northern Utah when their numbers increased considerably.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"First winter male Common Goldeneyes displaying, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneyes-1st-winter-males-mia-mcpherson-2830.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneyes-1st-winter-males-mia-mcpherson-2830.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneyes-1st-winter-males-mia-mcpherson-2830.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneyes-1st-winter-males-mia-mcpherson-2830.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55391,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/12\/23\/first-winter-drake-common-goldeneye-landing-on-a-pond\/","url_meta":{"origin":55129,"position":5},"title":"First Winter Drake Common Goldeneye Landing On A Pond","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I got lucky when a first winter drake Common Goldeneye flew towards me while coming in for a landing on the pond in sweet late afternoon light.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"First winter drake Common Goldeneye coming in for a landing, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/common-goldeneye-first-winter-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-6270.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/common-goldeneye-first-winter-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-6270.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/common-goldeneye-first-winter-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-6270.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/common-goldeneye-first-winter-male-landing-mia-mcpherson-6270.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}