This female Goldeneye Bucephala
was photographed at Amwell NR, Herts, on 19th January 2008:
All these pics were taken during a prolonged period of active feeding, with very little time at the surface, thus the head was almost never in a fully-relaxed pose; there were 5 other goldeneyes together on the lake, but this bird was on its own:
Note in the image below how the horizontal lower border to the dark brown neck is almost concave, due to the brown on the front and rear of the neck extending very slightly:
This image suggests that the brown on the foreneck is extensive:
