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| Wetlands & Waterfowl's Guide to North American Waterfowl: | |||
| Click to load: American Bittern American Widgeon Black- Crowned Night Heron Black Duck Blue-Winged Teal Canada Goose Canvasback Cattle Egret Common Egret Cinnamon Teal Gadwall Great Blue Heron Great Egret Green-Winged Teal Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Mallard Mute Swan Northern Pintail Northern Shoveler Redhead Ring-Necked Snowy Egret Snow Goose Trumpeter Swan Wood Duck |
Ring-Necked Duck Scroll down for details Scientific Name: Aythya collaris Habitat: Wooded ponds and lakes, estuaries, marshes. Appearance: 15-19" long. Stocky. Male: body mostly black; bill grey with white band near tip; flanks light grey, wings black, with grey border visible in flight. Female: body grey-brown, eye ring buff/white; gray bill with white band near tip Food: Aquatic plants, seeds, snails, insects, crustaceans Nesting: Nest is a down-lined hollow of grass, hidden in vegetation near water. Female lays 6-14 greenish eggs and incubates for about 26 days. Young are downy, leave the nest soon after hatching and fly at about 7-8 weeks. |
The Ring-necked Duck has a ring around its bill
rather than its neck. This misleading name is due to the fact that the drake has a faint,
narrow chestnut collar, but this marking can not be seen in flight. The Ring-necked Duck
is one of the few ducks that nest on boggy ponds in the boreal forest. More than any other
divers, the Ringnecks are essentially an inland species, being most abundant in the
interior of the United States. They greatly prefer sloughs, marshes and lagoons to open
lakes. Extremely good divers, they can obtain food in water as deep as fourty feet and
have been captured by accident in the nets of fishermen at this depth. Although they must
run along the surface of the water during takeoff like all diving ducks, the Ringneck
rises with greater ease than the others.
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