VAN DIEK H, GELDERBLOM PG (2020) First nest find of Long-tailed Duck Clangula hyemalis in the Netherlands. LIMOSA 93 (4): 180-184.

After the sighting of a first successful breeding attempt of Long-tailed Duck in the Netherlands in 2019, with four young on the artificial islands Marker Wadden in lake Markermeer, a Long-tailed Duck nest was found for the first time in the Netherlands in 2020 near the town of Lienden, in the province of Gelderland. A female Long-tailed Duck and a pair of Long-tailed Ducks was already spotted near Lienden in respectively spring 2018 and 2019. In 2020 the behaviour of the pair indicated a breeding attempt, which initiated a nest search. On the 13th of July a nest with seven eggs was found. Unfortunately, four days later the nest was predated by an unknown predator. Two breeding attempts in the Netherlands within two years is remarkable, since the breeding and wintering population of Long-tailed Duck in Europe shows a large-scale decline. None of the birds showed indications of a captive origin (wild behaviour, no rings, no damaged feathers). The breeding attempt of Long-tailed Ducks far outside its breeding range does not entirely stand alone, as a few pairs of Smews Mergellus albellus have been successfully breeding in the north of the Netherlands for almost ten years, also with no indications of a captive origin.

[pdf only for members] [dutch summary]