Bird
Canvasback
Aythya valisineria
A winter visitor to Virginia, found in all 133 counties and cities and 12 habitats.
- Here
- Winter and on migration
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- All 133 counties and cities
- Habitats
- 12

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- Winter and on migration
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- All 133 counties and cities
- Habitats
- 12
- Habitat models
- Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Virginia 12
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.




Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)
Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.
Depression ponds and limesinks
Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.
Disturbed and introduced wetlands
Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.
Flat, poorly drained uplands and terraces with oaks, sweetgum and sometimes loblolly pine, wet in winter and dry in summer, but neither a floodplain nor a swamp.
Wet, open, peaty mountain wetlands fed by seepage, often with sphagnum moss.
Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.
Other habitats in its models (32)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Virginia.
- Open Water (Aquaculture) Winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Winter.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Winter.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland Winter.
- Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depressions - Forest Modifier Winter.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Winter.
- Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Winter.
- South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Winter.
- Mississippi River Riparian Forest Winter.
- Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Forest Winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Floodplain Forest Winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Winter.
- Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Winter.
- Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Offsite Hardwood Modifier Winter, only within 30 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Winter, only within 30 m of water.
- South-Central Interior / Upper Coastal Plain Wet Flatwoods Winter.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Nonriverine Wet Hardwood Flatwoods Winter.
Seasons in Virginia
- Migratory: does not nest here, in 81 of 133 counties and cities.
- Winter: does not nest here, in 73 of 133 counties and cities.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 579
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Virginia. Shared habitat, not food.
- Seashore SaltgrassDistichlis spicata
- Crested Wood-fernDryopteris cristata
- Creeping SpikerushEleocharis fallax
- Dwarf SpikerushEleocharis parvula
- Beaked SpikerushEleocharis rostellata
- Estuary PipewortEriocaulon parkeri
- White AshFraxinus americana
- Licorice BedstrawGalium circaezans
- HarperellaHarperella nodosa
- Common WinterberryIlex verticillata
- Virginia SweetspireItea virginica
- Bigleaf Marsh-elderIva frutescens
- Black WalnutJuglans nigra
- Black NeedlerushJuncus roemerianus
- American Water-willowJusticia americana
- Mountain LaurelKalmia latifolia
- White CutgrassLeersia virginica
- Coastal DoghobbleLeucothoe axillaris
- Highland DoghobbleLeucothoe fontanesiana
- Carolina GrasswortLilaeopsis carolinensis
- Sandhills LilyLilium pyrophilum
- American Frog's-bitLimnobium spongia
- Welsh MudwortLimosella australis
- Cardinal-flowerLobelia cardinalis
Wildlife 249
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Virginia. Not sighting records.
- Common NighthawkChordeiles minor
- Great Blue HeronArdea herodias
- Great EgretArdea alba
- Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus
- Green HeronButorides virescens
- Swamp SparrowMelospiza georgiana
- Yellow-crowned Night-heronNyctanassa violacea
- American Black DuckAnas rubripes
- American PipitAnthus rubescens
- Bald EagleHaliaeetus leucocephalus
- Belted KingfisherMegaceryle alcyon
- Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticorax
- Canada GooseBranta canadensis
- Chimney SwiftChaetura pelagica
- Common YellowthroatGeothlypis trichas
- Cooper's HawkAccipiter cooperii
- Red-winged BlackbirdAgelaius phoeniceus
- Sharp-shinned HawkAccipiter striatus
- Snowy EgretEgretta thula
- Song SparrowMelospiza melodia
- Spotted SandpiperActitis macularius
- Turkey VultureCathartes aura
- Yellow-breasted ChatIcteria virens
- American CootFulica americana
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Canvasback
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)









































