Ring-necked Duck, male
Aythya collaris
Ring-necked Duck · San Diego · 6 March 2026
A drake Ring-necked Duck close up, wintering on a San Diego pond after a summer on the lakes of the boreal forest. It is a diving duck that prefers small, quiet water, and a park pond in California suits it well.
The pale grey bill markings show clearly enough to make sense of the species' alternative name in some older field guides, Ring-billed Duck, which was dropped mainly to avoid confusion with the Ring-billed Gull. The purple gloss on the head only shows at certain angles; in flat light the same feathers read as simply black.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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