YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Extreme fluff alert!
National Park Service photographer Jacob W. Frank snapped a family of bufflehead ducks cruising through Yellowstone National Park (YNP) waters earlier this month. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the bufflehead is North America’s smallest diving duck, tending to favor ponds and lakes.
Writing for Audubon Magazine, writer Nicholas Lund described buffleheads as “one of our most endearing and adorable ducks.”
“They’re so tiny that most of their bodies seem to be made up of their big puffy heads,” Lund wrote. “They’re named after those big heads, of course. ‘Buffle’ was an old word meaning ‘buffalo,’ and early observers apparently drew a comparison between this duck’s noggin and that of the massive grazer. It wasn’t a friendly comparison either; to call someone ‘buffle-headed’ in the 1600s was to say they were stupid. I don’t think there’s a connection between that usage and the duck, though, because how could you insult these little guys?”
About 300 different bird species have been documented in Yellowstone, according to the park. Download a checklist and learn more about birds in the park here.
