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Ring-necked Duck

The ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris) is a small average-size diving duck. The drake has a grey stripe on his wing, a dark back, a white-ringed beak, and a brown collar hardly noticeable. The female ring-necked duck is brown, has a white circle around the eye, and displays a white ring on the beak too.

The ring-necked duck is one of Canada's birds that migrate the latest. It likes peat bogs and shallow lakes surrounded by lots of conifers. It reproduces in northern marshes, in precambrian region wooded areas, and since a few years in the eastern territory of Canada. They can be found in the north of the United States too. Finally, it winters as far as Panama.

Ring-necked duck couples are monogamous. The nest is built by the female duck and located on dry land, most of the time in a clumb of scrubs close to a lake or a marsh. It is composed of grass, twigs, plants, and also of down. The female usually lays 8 to 10 eggs which she will sit on for about 30 days. Soon after the laying the female takes her ducklings to the nearest body of water and leaves them two months only after their birth.