GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
tags: Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris, birds, bird ID quiz, mystery bird
[Mystery bird] Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris, photographed at Hermann Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 11 March 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s f/8.0 at 500.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Look at that tail! The elegant black-and-white patterning of this duck told us at first glance we were looking at a pochard, and there's really only one species in that group with such a long tail, often held cocked up. Just to be sure, let's move slowly forward. This bird's back is jet black, separated from the silvery of the sides by a lavish S-curve. The silver brightens towards the front, becoming a white wedge that reaches up almost to divide the black of the breast from the black of the back.
The head is purplish-black, but far more eloquent than its color is its shape: a nearly vertical nape, a puffy crest, and a very steep forehead, with a definite stop between head and bill. And the bill is silver, with a fine white border at the base, neat white outlining surrounding the nostrils, a broad white subterminal band, and a wide black nail. It all adds up to a Ring-necked Duck.
That eponymous neck ring is visible only when the bird stretches its neck, showing a band of plush brown feathers that in the right light contrast nicely with the head and breast; beginning birders always complain that the bird should be called "ring-billed," but they forget that the name (a translation of the scientific epithet, collaris) comes from inspection of a bird on its back on a table, a position showing the neck ring to full advantage but leaving the strikingly marked bill unseen.
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Comments
Ring-necked duck. Gray sides with white mark pointing up at the front, gray bill with white margins and black tip, sharp peak on back of head.
Posted by: Andy | November 20, 2008 10:18 AM
Adult male Ring-necked Duck. The white spur on the neck is what drew my eye first.
Posted by: John Callender | November 20, 2008 10:58 AM
The ring on the neck is not visible, and almost never is in the field, but the black back, white hook near the black breast, ringed bill (hunters call them ring-bills) and peaked crown all add up to Ring-necked Duck.
Posted by: JohnB | November 21, 2008 8:29 AM
We have a new pair of ducks on our canal. One is solid black and the other is black with white markings. We see them flying down the canal in Bay Saint Louis, Ms and cannot give further markings at this time. Can you help ID these Ducks. They are large, but they are not geese.
Thank you for your help,
Donna
Posted by: Donna Brandt | February 25, 2009 2:09 PM