If the canvasback is king, the redhead is at least a prince. Like the can, he’s big beautiful and fast. He loves decoys, and there’s nothing shy or skittish about the way he approaches them. Males sport a reddish head and upper neck with a black lower neck, foreback and breast. Unlike the can, his bill is light blue-gray with a whitish band behind a relatively wide black tip. Females have a reddish-brown head, neck and breast, with a buff white chin and throat and an indistinct eye ring and stripe behind the eye. The bill is duller than the male’s, but similar in pattern.

• Habitat: During the migration, hunters across the nation are likely to encounter him, but he calls the Gulf Coast his winter home. Small numbers are common from Apalachee Bay, FL to the Yucatan Peninsula, but the Laguna Madre on the border of Texas and Mexico winters approximately 80% of the North American population.
• Interesting Fact: According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texans set a harvest record on redheads in 2014 with 97,770 birds.