{"id":76047,"date":"2020-12-13T06:59:39","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T13:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=76047"},"modified":"2025-09-14T07:12:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T12:12:21","slug":"drake-common-goldeneye-with-pigment-issues-on-his-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/12\/13\/drake-common-goldeneye-with-pigment-issues-on-his-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake Common Goldeneye With Pigment Issues On His Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdultAdult male Common Goldeneye with white markings on his bill \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The snow I wrote about yesterday morning was a disappointment because we didn’t get much at all down in the valley and the snow stopped falling rather early in the day so I didn’t get a single photo of a bird at my local pond with big, fat, fluffy snowflakes falling.<\/p>\n

I did find and photograph an adult drake Common Goldeneye with pigment issues on his bill at my local pond.<\/p>\n

In this photo of the drake goldeneye the white areas on his bill should be a shiny black.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Common Goldeneye with an odd colored bill \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first saw this drake goldeneye he was preening and I thought that the white area on his bill was a feather that had gotten stuck on it. Then a gust of wind blew something into my left eye which messed up my vision in that eye for the entire time I photographed this male. My eye was tearing and something kept moving into my field of vision. That visual disturbance lasted into the evening last night which wasn’t at all pleasant.<\/p>\n

I relied heavily on my camera’s auto focus\u00a0 yesterday because I was having visual difficulties due to the strongs winds and tearing eyes.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult drake Common Goldeneye preening on a windy day \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I got back home and uploaded the images I took of the drake Common Goldeneye I could see that his bill had pigment issues and that it wasn’t a white feather stuck on his bill.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Common Goldeneye and his odd colored bill \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This male Common Goldeneye is in his breeding plumage which is also known as Definitive Alternate Plumage which means he has a lot<\/em> of white feathers. This drake Common Goldeneye may have other pigment issues but since the males of this species have so much white in their plumage it could be difficult to tell if he does.<\/p>\n

For instance; last winter I photographed a leucistic second winter Bald Eagle with white feathers on its head, crown and throat<\/span><\/a> where it was obvious that those white feathers wouldn’t normally be white at that stage of the eagle’s life. When that particular Bald Eagle obtains its adult plumage the leucism I documented in my photos will not be noticeable or evident because the areas where it had white feathers as a sub-adult will<\/em> be white as and adult.\u00a0 The same thing could be happening with this drake Common Goldeneye. I might not be able to see leucism of it has occurred in area where this drake has white feathers.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult drake Common Goldeneye settling down on the water \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, the lack of pigment on this drake’s bill might only be affecting the bare part of his bill. I have photographed Laughing Gulls that only seemed to have pigment issues with their bare parts which were their legs and bills<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Both gulls seemed to have normally colored feathers for the time of year that I photographed them and looked identical to the other gulls in the area except for their oddly colored legs and bills.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Common Goldeneye with an odd bill \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This Common Goldeneye drake’s bill fascinates me. I usually only see this species in the winter here in northern Utah and to find one with an unusually pigmented bill was interesting.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Common Goldeneye flapping his wings \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

There were other male and female Common Goldeneyes on the pond yesterday afternoon yet this drake seemed to keep to himself. I don’t think that has anything to do with his odd colored bill, I think it has more to do with it being his feeding territory because he was diving and searching for food when he wasn’t preening.<\/p>\n

\"SwimmingSwimming drake Common Goldeneye fighting the wind \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It was pretty windy yesterday afternoon and bitter cold. By the time I got home my hands felt like they were chunks of ice. I hope to see this drake Common Goldeneye with his odd colored bill again, perhaps even later today.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Common Goldeneye photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I got back home and uploaded the images I took of the drake Common Goldeneye I could see that his bill had pigment issues and that it wasn’t a white feather stuck on his bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155950,"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":[27,962,709,26],"tags":[4004,5552,4053,4238,4520,5606,4642,4753,4483,4337,6239,6348,5586,10735,4062,4246,10732,10734,1984,4019,3973,4740,1283,30,3996,2063,10733,5361,1193,5498,373],"class_list":["post-76047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-common-goldeneyes","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-bill","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-bucephala-clangula","tag-common-goldeneye","tag-definitive-alternate-plumage","tag-definitive-basic-plumage","tag-diving-ducks","tag-drake","tag-fighting","tag-flapping","tag-goldeneye","tag-goldeneyes","tag-lack-of-pigment","tag-male","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-odd-colored-bill","tag-pigment-isses","tag-pond","tag-preening-2","tag-salt-lake-county","tag-settling","tag-swimming","tag-utah-2","tag-water","tag-waterfowl","tag-white-on-bill","tag-wind","tag-windy","tag-wings","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/common-goldeneye-drake-breeding-odd-bill-color-mia-mcpherson-1008.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-jMz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61846,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/12\/02\/why-do-these-drake-common-goldeneyes-look-different\/","url_meta":{"origin":76047,"position":0},"title":"Why Do These Drake Common Goldeneyes Look Different?","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Both of these drake Common Goldeneyes were photographed on January 7, 2018, but they don't look quite the same.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult drake Common Goldeneye side view, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-goldeneye-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-3509.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-goldeneye-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-3509.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-goldeneye-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-3509.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/common-goldeneye-adult-male-mia-mcpherson-3509.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":108781,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/12\/16\/immature-male-common-goldeneye-and-catfish\/","url_meta":{"origin":76047,"position":1},"title":"Immature Male Common Goldeneye And Catfish","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"On this day two years ago, I photographed this immature male Common Goldeneye with a catfish at the pond in my neighborhood. 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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, 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