Ring-necked Ducks Searching for a New Name

 

This morning I took my two dogs out for a walk on the Emanuel Harmon Farm where we spotted four Ring-necked Ducks (three males and one female). These ducks are notorious among birders for having the wrong name. For instance, can you identify a ring around the neck of males pictured in these photos? True, the photos are a bit fuzzy (I'm not a photographer), but trust me, you'd be hard pressed to find the chestnut or cinnamon band even in a sharp image. The light and angle of such a photo has to be just right.

 If one marking IS conspicuous with these ducks, it's the white ring around their bills, in both male and female. (In recent years, the American Ornithological Society reviewed a proposal to change this species name but declined.) But enough on this rant--ha!

The drake has a glossy black head and back and handsome gray sides, punctuated with white shoulder patches. A real classy guy. What lady (or hen) could resist such a fellow, especially with his dreamy deep golden (or orange?) eyes. However, the hen has her own bragging rights with burnished brown sides nicely contrasting her grayish brown back. And who doesn't love white eye rings? 

Ring-necked Ducks are diving ducks, but this species doesn't plunge too deeply for their meals. In shallower ponds, just a few feet will take them down to where the leeches hide in the murky mud and submerged vegetation. They also like snails, earthworms, dragonfly nymphs--you name it! Most aquatic invertebrates will do. They also snack on submerged plants and tubers of various kinds, including water lilies. 

Ring-necked Ducks are mostly migrants, flying through Pennsylvania to their breeding grounds throughout Canada and northern North America and then flying south to winter in our southern and western states as well as Central America and the Caribbean. That said, you'll find Ring-Necked ducks wintering in a few southeastern counties of Pennsylvania as well as Erie,  our state's most northwestern county. Go figure.

As I live in Adams County, I think myself lucky to have spent some time with this migrating  band of diving ducks. Good luck on your journey!

Until next time . . . Keep birds in your heart!