The Hardhead possesses one of the strangest names among Australian birds. It was formerly known as the ‘White-eyed Duck’, but this feature is present only on drakes, with females having dark eyes. Nevertheless, this discrepancy has never been an impediment to naming birds in the past — female Blackbirds are never black, for instance. The name ‘Hardhead’ has nothing to do with the density of the duck’s cranium, but stems from early taxidermists who found that the head was the most difficult part of the duck to process.