Ring-necks and Buffleheads

     Ring-necked ducks and bufflehead ducks regularly winter in small flocks and in fair numbers on larger waterways and impoundments, as long as their water stays ice-free, here in southeastern Pennsylvania, as well as across much of the Lower 48 States.  And larger numbers of both species migrate north and west through here during March, and when coming south during November.
     The drakes of both these species of small ducks are attractive, helping beautify the waters they winter on.  Ring-neck drakes are dark on top, including their heads that have a purple sheen in the sunlight.  They have dark chests, but light-gray flanks with a vertical white stripe between chest and the flank on each side.  And they have a small tuft of feathers on top of the head.
     Bufflehead drakes have dark backs, white flanks and green heads with white in the middle of their heads.  They appear black and white striped on the wings and back when they fly.
     Hens of both species are plain in feathering, which allows them to blend in to their surroundings.  Camouflage is valuable to hen ducks, and many other kinds of birds.  It keeps them alive longer to incubate eggs and raise youngsters.  Ring-neck hens are brown all over, with a bit of white feathering at the base of the bill.  The beaks of both genders of ring-necks are light-blue, with black tips and a white ring behind that tip.  Female buffleheads are gray-brown with a white patch on each cheek. 
     Ring-necked ducks are bay ducks related to two kinds of scaups, red-headed ducks and canvasback ducks.  While scaups, red-heads and cans are birds of bigger waters in winter, such as brackish bays and salty inlets off the ocean, ring-neck ducks are more of an inland species of fresh waters.  By using a different habitat, ring-necks don't compete much with their relatives for wintering space and food.
     Ring-necks hatch young on the marshy borders of beaver ponds and other fresh water ponds in woods across Canada.  Migrating ring-necks put down on ponds and lakes, natural and human-made, when on migration either going north or south.  This species regularly winters across the southern half of the United States and much of Mexico.
     While their ducklings eat a lot of invertebrates to get protein for growth, adult ring-necks are mostly vegetarians, consuming seeds and aquatic plants, with some insects and snails.  They dive under water from the surface and swim with their webbed feet to the bottoms of impoundments to dredge up their food with their shovel-like beaks.
     Bufflehead females hatch ducklings in tree hollows, created by a kind of woodpecker called yellow-shafted flickers, plus pileated woodpeckers, by ponds and wetlands in forests across Canada and Alaska.  Buffleheads winter on rivers, ponds and lakes in the southern two-thirds of the United States, where they are associates of American goldeneye ducks and common merganser ducks.
     Buffleheads dive under water from the surface and swim with their webbed feet to get food on the bottom of larger waterways, and impoundments of most sizes.  They mostly ingest aquatic insect larvae, snails and other kinds of invertebrates, plus small fish and seeds from plants.  Since buffleheads mostly eat small animal life, they don't compete much with ring-necked ducks for food.
     Ring-necked ducks and bufflehead ducks are common in southeastern Pennsylvania during winter and early spring when they pass through here on migration.  They are attractive additions to ponds and larger waterways and impoundments during that bleakest of seasons, as long as the water doesn't freeze, effectively locking away their food supplies.