{"id":155483,"date":"2024-03-15T05:43:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T11:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=155483"},"modified":"2024-03-15T07:40:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T13:40:26","slug":"drake-ruddy-duck-in-breeding-plumage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/15\/drake-ruddy-duck-in-breeding-plumage\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake Ruddy Duck In Breeding Plumage"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while since I’ve photographed a “stiff-tail”. Over two years, to be more precise.<\/p>\n

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I’ll begin by including this older photo (taken in January of 2022) of a male Ruddy Duck that isn’t<\/span> in breeding plumage. Comparing this photo to the following photos will demonstrate how transformative their transition to breeding plumage actually is.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I found this drake Ruddy two days ago in some blustery, overcast weather at a local pond. It would be more accurate to say that he found me because I didn’t even know he was there until he swam around the edge of some phrags along the shore right in front of me.<\/p>\n

This guy is in full breeding (alternate) plumage, or nearly so. At this stage males have a bright, sky-blue bill, white cheeks, a black cap and nape, a bright reddish-chestnut upper body (including sides and flanks) and a silvery-white belly with darker feather bases showing through. Their dark-brownish tail is often carried in an upright posture and unlike most ducks their wings have no speculum color.<\/p>\n

The contrast between the males in the two photos above is so dramatic it might be hard for some to imagine that they’re the same species.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

While I was with him he spent all of his time diving for food. Or preparing to.<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

After diving, many ducks will rise up in the water and shake their body and\/or flap their wings to get rid of excess water but this bird never did that, not once. But after a dive he would reliably shake his head violently, sending water flying. While I was with him he never failed to do so after a dive.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

He could look pretty silly while doing it. This may not be a flattering pose but it does allow us to see the underside of his bill, which is usually difficult to observe.<\/p>\n

It also shows us his light colored belly, which in combination with his darker dorsal surfaces demonstrates “countershading” or Thayer’s Law.<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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1\/2000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Ruddy Ducks are in a genus (Oxyura) of only six species of ducks with long, stiff tail feathers, which are often erected when the bird is resting. All six species are sometimes called “stiff-tails. Since this bird was diving instead of resting, he always kept his tail flat on the water where I couldn’t see it well while he was on the surface.<\/p>\n

But when he dived I could clearly see his long (for a duck) stiff tail, as in the photo above. Toward the end of his transition to breeding plumage, he’s still growing his new tail feathers.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

The several lighter-colored feathers on his flank appear to be remnants of his previous plumage. As you can see in photo #2, those lighter-colored feathers are missing on his left side.<\/p>\n

Until you actually see a Ruddy Duck up close you don’t fully realize how small they are. Ruddy’s are only half the size of a Mallard (1.2 lbs. vs 2.4 lbs.). But the males in breeding plumage really pack a visual punch in a small package. Especially with that striking and highly unusual blue bill that changes color with the season.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while since I’ve photographed a “stiff-tail”. (7 photos)<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,334,392,6072],"tags":[7377,564,7379,6800,7375,7378,7374,2405,7376,7380,311],"class_list":["post-155483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-oddities","category-birds","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","category-ruddy-ducks","tag-blue-bill","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-countershading","tag-diving-for-food","tag-drake-ruddy-duck","tag-how-big-are-ruddy-ducks","tag-male-ruddy-duck","tag-oxyura-jamaicensis","tag-stiff-tail-duck","tag-thayers-law","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/ruddy-duck-8114-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-ErN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155483"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155546,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155483\/revisions\/155546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}