The ring-necked duck is a diving duck. It is 15-18 inches (38–46 cm) in length with a wingspan of 2 feet (0.61 m).
It has a bump on the crown of its head, a slate gray bill with a white ring around the tip, and yellow eyes. It gets its name from the hard-to-see chestnut ring around its neck.
The male has a glossy purple head that looks black. He has a black chest, back, and rump; gray sides; and white stripes on the sides of his breast. He has a white stripe on his wings.
The female has tan sides, a brown back, a white belly, and a white ring around her eyes.
The ring-necked duck is found in shallow wetlands with emergent, submerged, or floating vegetation.
Ring-necked duck pairs form in early spring. The female chooses a nesting site in tall vegetation over or near the water. She builds a bowl-shaped nest on a platform of plants and lines it with soft down feathers.
She lays 8-12 eggs. The male leaves when the female begins incubating the eggs. The female incubates the eggs for 28- 29 days. The chicks fledge (develop flight feathers) when they are about 50 days old.
The ring-necked duck has a lifespan of 6-10 years in the wild. The oldest ring-necked duck on record lived to be 20 years old.
Unlike most other diving ducks, the ring-necked duck can take off from the water without running across its surface.
Even though it is named the ring-necked duck, you really can’t see a ring around its neck, unless you are holding the duck close.
A better name for it might have been the ring-billed duck, since the white ring around its bill is easy to spot.
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The ring-necked duck breeds in northern New Hampshire and can be seen in the rest of the state during its migration.
The ring-necked duck breeds across Canada south through the northern U.S. and into northern California and Colorado.
It winters along the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts and the southern U.S. south into Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.
