bufflehead
noun
buf·fle·head
ˈbə-fəl-ˌhed 
: a small North American diving duck (Bucephala albeola)
Examples of bufflehead in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Those wishing to target buffleheads, or for that matter, canvasbacks or goldeneyes, should set a handful of drake bufflehead decoys off to one side of the spread.
—
M.d. Johnson, Field & Stream, 30 Nov. 2023
Details here and here. BEACH WALK Beach season starts now: Grab your binoculars to check out sandpipers, eiders, buffleheads at Norman Bird Sanctuary’s stroll on Third Beach.
—Lauren Daley, BostonGlobe.com, 25 May 2023
Highlights included a sooty shearwater and 16 Wilson’s storm-petrels off George’s Island in Boston Harbor, a bufflehead in Winthrop, a least bittern at Belle Isle in East Boston, and a hooded merganser and an alder flycatcher at Millennium Park in West Roxbury.
—BostonGlobe.com, 31 July 2021
But some of my best duck hunting memories are of bufflehead swarming a mallard spread on a windy lake in Wisconsin, gadwall dropping from the stratosphere to get into a half-frozen pothole in North Dakota, and teal and shovelers screaming through a pass-shoot in Mexico.
—Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 18 Dec. 2020
In an all-day coastal marsh sit, three of us downed a single lesser scaup and a lone bufflehead.
—T. Edward Nickens, Field & Stream, 1 Jan. 2021
Within 100 yards of the trailhead, a blue surgical mask caught the sun in a thicket of reeds, a flock of bufflehead ducks paddling through the calm waters in a V formation just a few yards away.
—Scott Wilson, Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2020
Newly arrived wild ducks—buffleheads and hooded mergansers—circle in small groups near the shore.
—Sylvia Poggioli, The New York Review of Books, 29 Mar. 2020
And, in fact some swimmers do come in the winter: buffleheads, ring-necked ducks, mergansers and other waterfowl visiting from the north.
—New York Times, 18 Aug. 2019
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M.d. Johnson, Field & Stream, 30 Nov. 2023
Details here and here. BEACH WALK Beach season starts now: Grab your binoculars to check out sandpipers, eiders, buffleheads at Norman Bird Sanctuary’s stroll on Third Beach.
—Lauren Daley, BostonGlobe.com, 25 May 2023
Highlights included a sooty shearwater and 16 Wilson’s storm-petrels off George’s Island in Boston Harbor, a bufflehead in Winthrop, a least bittern at Belle Isle in East Boston, and a hooded merganser and an alder flycatcher at Millennium Park in West Roxbury.
—BostonGlobe.com, 31 July 2021
But some of my best duck hunting memories are of bufflehead swarming a mallard spread on a windy lake in Wisconsin, gadwall dropping from the stratosphere to get into a half-frozen pothole in North Dakota, and teal and shovelers screaming through a pass-shoot in Mexico.
—Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 18 Dec. 2020
In an all-day coastal marsh sit, three of us downed a single lesser scaup and a lone bufflehead.
—T. Edward Nickens, Field & Stream, 1 Jan. 2021
Within 100 yards of the trailhead, a blue surgical mask caught the sun in a thicket of reeds, a flock of bufflehead ducks paddling through the calm waters in a V formation just a few yards away.
—Scott Wilson, Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2020
Newly arrived wild ducks—buffleheads and hooded mergansers—circle in small groups near the shore.
—Sylvia Poggioli, The New York Review of Books, 29 Mar. 2020
And, in fact some swimmers do come in the winter: buffleheads, ring-necked ducks, mergansers and other waterfowl visiting from the north.
—New York Times, 18 Aug. 2019
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bufflehead.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
archaic English buffle buffalo + English head
First Known Use
1731, in the meaning defined above
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Dictionary Entries Near bufflehead
Cite this Entry
“Bufflehead.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bufflehead. Accessed 11 Dec. 2023.
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Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about bufflehead
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