Game Birds of the World

The ring-necked duck, or ring-bill as it is commonly and appropriately called by most hunters, is another native North American pochard. Its range is centered in central and eastern Canada. In some ways it is rather scaup-like in appearance (males are mostly black with white flanks), but an examination of the plumages of females and ducklings immediately shows that the species is a typical pochard. Like the canvasback and redhead, both sexes have gray rather than white wing stripes; however, the male's bill is more strongly banded with gray, white, and black than any of the other pochards' bills. The female is a rather nondescript grayish brown, usually with a well-defined whitish eye-ring and eyestripe and fainter banding evident on the bill.

Unlike the other American pochards, this species inhabits forested swamps, bogs, and similar often acidic wetlands of eastern Canada, although it extends locally to British Columbia. The birds form pair bonds as yearlings and thereafter apparently re-establish their bonds annually. On their breeding grounds, females seek out islands, small mats of floating vegetation, and similar sites for their nests, but occasionally nest on dry sites. Clutch sizes average about nine eggs. Incubation requires 26–27 days, and fledging about 7–8 weeks.