Ring-necked Duck

Mystery Birds: Ring-Necked Duck, Aythya collaris, versus Redhead, Aytha americana

grrlscientist — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:59:38 +0000

Mystery Birds: Ring-Necked Duck, Aythya collaris, versus Redhead, Aytha americana

~~[Mystery bird #1]~~ Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris, photographed at the Hermann Park Conservancy, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Joseph Kennedy, 18 November 2009 [larger view].

Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.

Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.

[NOTE: all IDs were made by the photographer; I don't agree with them, but I am reporting them. Of course, the links to the original images are broken now]

Mystery bird #2:

~~[Mystery bird #2]~~ Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris, photographed at the Hermann Park Conservancy, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Joseph Kennedy, 16 November 2008 [larger view].

Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s f/1.0 iso400.

Mystery bird #3:

~~[Mystery bird #3]~~ Redhead, Aytha americana, photographed at the Hermann Park Conservancy, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Joseph Kennedy, 5 December 2009 [larger view].

Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.

Mystery bird #4:

~~[Mystery bird #4]~~ Redhead, Aytha americana, photographed at the Hermann Park Conservancy, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Joseph Kennedy, 21 November 2007 [larger view].

Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/180s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.

Mystery bird #5:

~~[Mystery bird #5]~~ Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris, photographed at the Hermann Park Conservancy, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Joseph Kennedy, 5 December 2009 [larger view].

Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.

Mystery bird #6:

~~[Mystery bird #6]~~ Redhead, Aytha americana, photographed at the Hermann Park Conservancy, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Joseph Kennedy, 5 December 2009 [larger view].

Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.

Mystery bird #7:

~~[Mystery bird #7]~~ Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris, photographed at the Hermann Park Conservancy, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Joseph Kennedy, 16 November 2008 [larger view].

Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/1.0 iso400.

Mystery bird #8:

~~[Mystery bird #8]~~ Redhead, Aytha americana, photographed at the Hermann Park Conservancy, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Joseph Kennedy, 13 January 2008 [larger view].

Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.

Review all mystery birds to date.

grrlscientist Mon, 01/25/2010 - 03:59

Blue-gray bill, round head, warm brown.
I think we have seen another one of these here recently.

That was for #1.

Heh. As Steve Martin said in Roxane, "The good Lord giveth, and he just kept on givin'!"

I'll have to take a look at these when I've got some more time tonight. Fun little challenge, though.

What's happening here!!! I think 1-7 are identifiable but #8 is something else, I think.

Well, they clearly are not squirrels, so I vote for cactus.

Adrian, I've just checked over the entire genus. Unless #8 is a hybrid of some sort, it's the same as the first 7.

I only see two things that make me wonder about it. The first is a complete lack of an eye-ring. The other is that the forehead seems too low, going into the bill too smoothly.

The body appears odd because the bird is rolled over on one side, and we're looking mostly at the underside. (Which rules out several members of the genus, actually).

Hi, I thought the eye colour of #8 was too reddish for the other 7. I was also thinking a hybrid as Aythya ducks are notorious for this, I suspect Redhead x Canvasback. If it was the UK I would have said Pochard x Scaup or Tufted.

It's quite funny sat here getting the inside knowledge (and also getting the snacks whilst Grrl writes a blog post for your entertainmentchecks her email). I think she'd like to see how you are deciding between the 2 or three alternatives.

She also wants cacti down to species level.

Finally home- I have to say that I remain unconvinced at the outcome of our last outing on the Redhead/Ring-necked debate and I am applying same considerations I used last time...

the ring-necked female should have a brown head with a darker crown whereas the redhead female would have a reddish-brown head which would also extend to the neck and breast- the darker crown is obvious here...

the eye-ring on the ring-necked is distinct whereas that on the redhead would be indistinct and I clearly see an obvious and complete one here...

I don't think the stripe behind the eye is necessarily characteristic because I would expect that also on a redhead, similarly the bill color and faint white band near the tip should be present on both too, as well as gray feet, and a brown iris...

however I also think the remaining plumage is distinctively different on both species with our duck showing similar dark coloring as the redhead on top but clearly brown on the flanks transitioning to a light belly whereas on a redhead there is little contrast between the brownish flanks and the belly...

so therefore:

a female Ring-necked Duck for #2 through 7, with #2/7 being the same individual, and #3/5/6 being a second individual...

#1 appears to fit my expectation for a female Redhead and I agree that #8 is a little problematic, certainly mostly Redhead, so if a hybrid I'm going to say a second generation Redhead hybrid (i.e. mom was all Redhead while dad was half and half)

Looks to me like Redheads #1-7, and maybe a Redhead X Canvasback (?) for #8.

The first seven birds are all too warm brown in the face and too pale on the back to be Ring-necked Ducks. None of them show the peaked head shape of a Ring-necked. Most of them also clearly show a paler base to the bill, typical of Redhead. Ring-necked females have a darker base to the bill, approaching the shade of the tip. For several of these birds, the lighting seems to make this mark harder to use, but since none of them shows the colder, grayer, more contrasty look of a Ring-necked, I'm not worried by it.

Scaup would show a darker head, usually with distinct white spot at the base of the bill, and a different bill pattern. Canvasback would show a very sloping forehead and an all dark bill.

Re. the rest of the genus (with ducks, it's never a bad idea to look farther afield for a weird one, since so many species manage to escape captivity.) Pochard should be the closest -- but the bill should show a dark base very similar in color to the tip, with a fairly broad, pale gray band across the middle. The head is typically slightly peaked as well. Southern and Red-crested Pochards should show bright, strongly contrasting white patches on the face. Tufted Duck should have a much darker head with a distinct peak at the rear and a darker back. Apparently the iris is usually yellow in adult females, but it does appear to vary, at least with age. All of the other members of the genus should have very dark heads.

Yes, I think 1-7 are Redheads, possibly 2 individuals, I can't see any features I would expect on female Ring-necked on these. Hybrid Aythyas are difficult to pin down to parentage and I can't find any info on the frequency of hybrids in the US in this group. A second generation would explain features of #8 though David.

As I showed Grrl last time, the group consensus and Grrl named tha last one a Redheaded thinking that was what the photographer confirmed but the same individual duck was photographed four times more and named a Ringneck by Joseph Kennedy, then his original Ringneck was changed to a Redheaded after this blog.

For me this is like the flycatcher, I get as far as either Redheaded or Ringneck or maybe even Scaup.

I just went back and checked the link Maggie put in, and thought I should point something out. The use of Pochard as an alternate for Redhead is definitely not a standard use. The name Pochard is sometimes applied to the genus as a whole, but it also applies specifically to Aythya ferina.

psweet: did you check out the 4 links I provided at comment# 16?

Hi Paul and Adrian,

I understand the argument for why some of the above (perhaps all) could be considered Redhead but by the same token, many of the descriptions I have reviewed would support Ring-necked, however I am beginning to suspect that part of the problem here is that we may be seeing juveniles and some of the subtle differences we see between what a female of a given species should look like and what is manifested in the photos is perhaps that difference- in some photos of juvenile Ring-necked Ducks I am seeing a consistent reduced light area at the base of the bill, or none at all, so if that is one of the differentiating criteria being used, it may not be as reliable as something like throat color or breast/belly color changes, etc.

Any thoughts?

Hello David,
If I have done this link correctly (my record on this is not good) there should be some pics of an immature R-n Duck.
I don't think they look like any of the MB pics.
www.gobirding.eu/Photos/RingneckedDuck.php ( for some reason I cannot link to this site properly---again)

Maggie -- I just checked the four links -- I'm not sure if they're all the same bird, but I have no problem calling them all Redheads. (I have the same problem with skippers -- I was working on a video project with them this fall, went through all my clips, and found that the 4 or 5 that I called Little Glassywings were all in fact something else.)

David, I'm not really using the pale feathering behind the bill - that seems to be highly variable in both species. An age-related aspect to that makes sense, although it helps to have known-aged birds to work on. I'm working mostly on color (warm red-brown compared to cool gray-brown), head shape, back color (especially the shoulder area) and the color of the proximal portion of the bill.

She also wants cacti down to species level.

Probably Macropus rufus but an outside chance it's Mycoplasma pneumoniae. I'm not enough of an expert to tell them apart.

Thanks Paul... with reference to the slighly elongated head of #8, any chance there might be some Canvasback (Aythya valisineria) in there?

Hi, David, yeah, Canvasback would be my first guess. Of course, sometimes hybrids in this group end up looking like something else entirely.

Mystery Bird: Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris

grrlscientist — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:59:24 +0000

Mystery Bird: Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris

tags: Ring-necked Duck, Ring-billed Duck, Ringneck, Aythya collaris, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz

~~[Mystery bird]~~ Ring-necked Duck, also known as the Ring-billed Duck (a more obvious name, in my opinion) or the Ringneck, Aythya collaris, photographed in San Francisco, California. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]

Image: Pete Myers, 12 November 2009 [larger view]

Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.

Review all mystery birds to date.

grrlscientist Tue, 12/08/2009 - 03:59

I'm calling that an adult male Ring-necked Duck, based on the eye color, the dark back, and (especially) the white "spur" between the dark chest and the grayish flanks. That streaky look in the neck plumage matches the Sibley illustration nicely, too.

Neat shot! I'm really enjoying these Pete Myers photos. Thanks for posting them.

Looks like a Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) to me too, with both Scaups eliminated because of the dark back and the white sides extending up to the shoulders...

Cool shot -- you can actually see the ring on the neck!

Mystery Bird: Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris

grrlscientist — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:59:59 +0000

Mystery Bird: Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris

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.

Review all mystery birds to date.

grrlscientist Thu, 11/20/2008 - 03:59

Mystery Bird: Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris

grrlscientist — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:59:59 +0000

Mystery Bird: Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris

tags: Ring-necked Duck, Aythya collaris, birds, nature, Image of the Day

~~[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 1/200s 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:

This photo should fill you with a flush of accomplishment: rather than running to the field guide, you just looked at the tail, didn't you, and immediately figured out that this was a female Ring-necked Duck.

The trick with brown ducks is that structurally they almost always closely resemble the bright males. Compare this brown Ring-neck with the fine black-and-silver drake from an earlier quiz [GrrlScientist comment: oops! I haven't shown you that duck yet, sorry], and you'll see that they share the long, cocked tail, the vertical nape, the steep forehead, and the slightly undersized bill; she may be ever so slightly less extravagant in those structural features, but they are still readily discernible, making this one of those birds you can identify at half a mile from a speeding car.

And in a view like this, we can use a few of the old "field marks" to confirm our analysis: the back is blackish, and the border between the back and the rather cold-colored sides is lavishly curved. The secondaries are dull silver. The face is paler than the crown, and there is a neat eye ring with a bridle mark trailing off behind. And the bill has a narrow white subterminal band behind the broad blackish tip.

But all you really needed was the length of the tail and the angle of the nape. Try it -- it works.

Review all mystery birds to date.

grrlscientist Mon, 11/10/2008 - 03:59