Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

Many duck lovers wax on about the dapper drake common goldeneye, but the hen is a very attractive bird in her own right. Her palette is dominated by shades of grey and ash, but her rich coffee and chocolate head, bi-colored bill, and, yes, “golden” eye make for a lovely combination. On close examination, however, her eye isn’t golden at all; it’s a pale chartreuse. This chartreuse color band represents a tiny portion of the hen’s total color column – 1.3% to be precise. With that in mind, I’ve included a detail of the color column’s base. (Those small bottom bands are why the Field Guide posters need to be as large as they are; viewers simply can’t make out all the constituent colors when printed at smaller scales.)

One especially interesting note about common goldeneye behavior – they’re known for high rates of brood parasitism. This means they frequently lay some (or all) of their eggs in another female goldeneye’s nest, and sometimes in those of another duck species. Some biologists believe this behavior may be more common with cavity nesters like the common goldeneye because there is more competition for suitable nest sites. Whatever the catalyst(s), one aspect of goldeneye brood parasitism that I find particularly curious is that because these birds typically return to the nesting area where they were birthed, sisters, mothers, and daughters generally nest in the same area; that means they are mostly likely to parasitize one another’s nests. Evolutionarily speaking, that lowers the cost of such parasitism. Even if a hen is not raising her own offspring, she is more likely to be rearing young carrying copies of her same genes. Fascinating!

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.