Ring-necked Duck

About the Ring-necked Duck

The Ring-necked Duck is a crisp, black-and-gray diving duck with a tall, peaked head. The drake shows a black back (unlike either scaup), a white spur on the gray flank, and a gray bill crossed by a white ring - far easier to see than the faint chestnut neck ring the species is named for. Hens are warm brown with a pale face and the same banded bill.

Ring-necks favor smaller, shallower, more sheltered water than most diving ducks - wooded ponds, creek-fed coves, and marshy lake edges - where they dive for seeds, tubers, and invertebrates. They spring almost vertically off the water like a dabbler, another giveaway among the divers.

In Texas the Ring-necked Duck is a common winter visitor statewide from late October into April, and small stock tanks ringed with timber will often hold a pair or two all season.