Ring-necked Duck, male
Aythya collaris
Ring-necked Duck · San Diego · 6 March 2026
A drake Ring-necked Duck on a San Diego pond in March, a diving duck that breeds on the wooded lakes of Canada and winters on fresh water across the southern United States. It dives for seeds and roots rather than fish, and prefers a small, sheltered pond to open water.
The name is a minor misdirection. The chestnut collar it is named for is nearly impossible to see in the field, faint even at close range and usually washed out in photographs. The much more useful mark is on the bill: a white ring near the tip and a second pale band at the base, against grey rather than the blue-grey of a scaup.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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