Ruddy Duck

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a dabbling duck, the most common “tribe” of ducks, including mallards, pintails, and teal. But there are also diving ducks, sea ducks, tree ducks (like August’s black-bellied whistling ducks), perching ducks, steamer ducks, shelducks, and oxyura, literally “stiff-tailed” ducks. That last tribe includes this ruddy duck, who has his characteristic stiff, pointy tail tucked underwater in this photo. In Louisville we typically only see ruddy ducks in their winter non-breeding plumage. In warmer months, they undergo a complete color transformation, with the males swapping out dull gray and brown plumage for their namesake ruddy red. Even their bills change color, from dark gray to a very conspicuous blue. This migrating male stopped by in April, giving us a rare chance to see their breeding colors, and reminding me that there is always more even to seemingly obvious conclusions. Even ducks are not just ducks.