Ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris)
by Wanda Gorsuch

Common Names: Ring-billed duck, ringneck

Ring-necked ducks should have been called ‘ring-bills’.  The white ring around their bill is far more distinct then the chestnut neck ring which is only found on males and can only be seen at close range.

Identification

A small to medium sized diving duck, ringneck males are slightly larger then females.  Males have black head, neck, breast and upperparts.  Belly and flanks are white to grey with a distinct white triangle in front of the wings.  The slate colored bill has 2 distinct white rings, one at the base of the bill and one near the tip.

Adult females are a grayish brown, darker at the top of the head and pale on front of the head, chin and throat.  Eyes are surrounded by a white ring and a narrow white line extends back from the eye.  Bill is the same slate color as the male, with a faint white ring near the tip.

Ringnecks can resemble scaup.  However, in flight, their uniformly dark wings are different from scaup, who sport single white bars.  At rest, the dark back of the male ringneck contrasts with the grey back of scaup.

Female Ringnecks closely resemble hen redheads, but are smaller, have a more angular head profile and a pale region on the front of the face.

Distribution

During nesting season ringnecks can be found throughout sub-arctic deltas, taiga and boreal forests, aspen parklands and, at lower numbers, prairie regions.  In the winter, ringnecks migrate to the Gulf of Mexico and southern Atlantic coast of the USA.

Habitat

Ringnecks like freshwater wetlands (e.g. marshes, fens and bogs) that are shallow with fringe vegetation during breeding season.  Winter months, Ringnecks can be found in shallow swamps, river flood plains, parts of estuaries, inland lakes, sloughs and marshes.  They also like managed freshwater impoundments, flooded agricultural fields and aquaculture ponds.

Food

Ringnecks are omnivorous and feed mostly by shallow dives, but sometimes tip up like a dabbling duck.  Ducklings still in the downy stage eat the most animal food (e.g. earth worms, leeches, midges, snails, clams, caddis flies).  Adult diets are mainly made up of vegetation such as seeds or tubers of submerged plants (e.g. pondweed, coontail, water milfoil, hydrilla), floating plants (e.g. water lily), emergent (e.g. annual wild rice), and aquatic and moist-soil plants (e.g. reed canary grass, arrowhead).

Reproduction

Ringneck pairs form during spring migration (March – April).  Pairs will stay together until early incubation.  Nesting dates range from March to July depending on how far north they are nesting. 

Nests are built over-water in dense emergent vegetation, especially sedges.  Not much of the nest is constructed before laying starts.  When the first egg is laid the nest is only a precarious platform made of bent over vegetation and grass fragments.  Nest construction is nearly complete by the 6^th day of laying. 

Hens lay one egg a day until around 8 -9 eggs are laid.  Females will incubate eggs overnight after the last egg is laid.  Incubation lasts for about 26 days.  After hatching, hens wait for one day for ducklings to dry before leaving the nest. 

Young can dive 48 hours after hatching, but mostly feed on the surface for the first week they are out of the shell.  Hens stay with ducklings until they begin to fledge at around 49 – 56 days of age.

Conservation and Management

The Ring-necked duck has no special conservation status.  The continental population is considered to be stable or increasing, but population estimates are imprecise.

Sources of Information

Bellrose, F.C.  1976.  Ducks, geese and swans of North America, 2^nd edition. Stackpole Books, Pennsylvania.

Hohman, W.L., and R.T. Eberhardt.  1998.  Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris). In The Birds of North America, No. 329 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA. 

Johnsgard, P.A.  1978.  Ducks, geese, and swans of the world. University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska.