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Ring-necked Duck

Ring-necked Duck

Aythya collaris

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The Ring-necked Duck is a compact North American diving duck best known for the male's peaked head and white-ringed grey bill; the chestnut neck ring that gives it its name is hardly ever visible. It breeds on wooded, vegetated lakes, ponds and bogs in the northern United States and Canada and winters widely further south. It is a rare but regular vagrant to western and northern Europe.

Did you know?

  • Its name refers to a faint chestnut neck ring that is rarely visible in the field.
  • Unusually for a diving duck, it often uses small forest ponds and beaver wetlands.

About the species

Identification

A smallish diving duck. The male has a black head, breast and back, pale grey flanks with a clear vertical white bar at the front of the flank, and a grey bill with a pale band near the tip and a dark tip. The female is greyish brown and also shows the pale bill band; the wing has grey stripes. The vertical white flank bar and bill pattern help separate it from other Aythya ducks.

Family

Anatidae

Size

Large (crow)

Colours

black, white, grey, yellow

About the habitat

Freshwater lakes, small forest ponds, bogs and beaver wetlands with emergent vegetation; in winter shallow lakes, marshes and sheltered bays.

Diet

Seeds and tubers of aquatic plants such as pondweeds, smartweeds and water-lilies, together with aquatic insects, snails and other invertebrates, especially in spring and in the diet of ducklings.

Behaviour

Feeds by diving and also by tipping up; often in small flocks. It takes off from the water quickly for a diving duck. Pairs form during spring migration. The female builds a bowl nest anchored in dense vegetation over water and incubates alone. Females give a dry “trrr” call.

Sources

Photo: Polinova, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ring-Necked Duck.jpg

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring-necked_duck

See also