Skip to content
The UK Bird Atlas

Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula)Where and when to see it in the UK

Resident · reporting peaks December to April · Ducks, Swans, and Geese · BOU category AF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula)
Alexis Lours, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Tufted Duck: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Tufted Duck has been recorded in 1,931 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (65%) in records to 2026. Resident in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in December to April.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
44% or more of visits
High
18% to 44%
Moderate
6% to 18%
Low
under 6%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 93%23%Very high
February 93%23%Very high
March 100%25%Very high
April 99%25%Very high
May 84%21%Low
June 70%18%Low
July 63%16%Low
August 62%16%Low
September 64%16%Very high
October 64%16%Very high
November 84%21%Very high
December 91%23%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in January

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
D10Mid and East Antrim, Northern Ireland100%Very high
H14Fermanagh and Omagh, Northern Ireland100%Very high
H15Fermanagh and Omagh, Northern Ireland100%Very high
H76Mid Ulster, Northern Ireland100%Very high
HU36Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HY40Orkney Islands, Scotland100%Very high
J08Antrim and Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland100%Very high
J18Antrim and Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland100%Very high
J33Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland100%Very high
J38Antrim and Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.