Ring-necked Duck

Aythya collaris

eBird describes the Ring-necked Duck this way:  Diving duck that favors small bodies of water, such as beaver ponds and cattail marshes. Males are handsome with glossy black head and back; clean gray sides. Females are gray-brown, often with a pale area behind the bill and white eyering. Both sexes have a white band across the top of pale blue bill.  All About Birds adds this descriptive information about the Ring-necked Duck:  The male Ring-necked Duck is a sharply marked bird of gleaming black, gray, and white. Females are rich brown with a delicate face pattern. At distance, look for this species’ distinctive, peaked head to help you identify it. Even though this species dives for its food, you can find it in shallow wetlands such as beaver swamps, ponds, and bays. Of all the diving duck species, the Ring-necked Duck is most likely to drop into small ponds during migration.

You never know what you might see on the way to the grocery store!  I like to trade at the HEB located in New Braunfels at the corner of Highway 46 and Loop 337.  I am grateful that HEB left a small pond below their parking area and have been meaning to bird there for quite some time.  Late on the evening of January 16, 2021, I saw some birds on the water and, upon closer inspection (ie I walked down to the pond from the parking lot) I found 23 beautiful Ring-necked Ducks.  The light was not good, so I went back the next morning and took some better photos.  Proud to add them to my list!

A beautiful male Ring-necked Duck at HEB Pond, January 17, 2021.
Not sure why this male Ring-necked Duck was showing off his wings! HEB Pond, January 17, 2021.
Ring-necked Ducks -- a male and two females at HEB Pond in New Braunfels, January 17, 2021.


“Cool Facts” About the Ring-necked Duck From All About Birds:

  • This bird’s common name (and its scientific name “collaris,” too) refer to the Ring-necked Duck’s hard-to-see chestnut collar on its black neck. It’s not a good field mark to use for identifying the bird, but it jumped out to the nineteenth century biologists that described the species using dead specimens.
  • During fall migration, Ring-necked Ducks can form immense flocks. Several hundred thousand congregate each fall on certain lakes in Minnesota to feed on wild rice.
  • Ring-necked Ducks on their breeding grounds occasionally get attacked by the much larger Common Loon, the Red-necked Grebe, and even the much smaller Pied-billed Grebe.
  • The oldest known Ring-necked Duck was a male, and at least 20 years, 5 months old. He was banded in 1964 in Louisiana and was shot in 1983, in Minnesota.