Wild Duck ID North Carolina

Wolf-Kim

Songster
11 Years
12 Years
Jan 25, 2008
3,832
43
221
I'm located in North Carolina and there has been a wild duck that has been hanging out on our pond for the past 2-3 weeks. It's a little thing and normally we only have mallards, but it's definitely not a mallard.

It dives down under the water and will stay down anywhere from 3-6 full seconds. It starts to migrate towards my domestic flock but the domestic drake will have none of it and usually chases it to the other side of the pond. It took off with a pair of Canada geese a couple days ago, but was back before dawn.

I can't get close enough to get a picture, so here goes the best description I can give. It is varying shades of cream and tan. It has a cream marking right at the base of the beak, then a light tan around the eye and down the neck, and then a darker tan/ kind of bronze cap/streak down the back of it's neck. While sitting on the water there is another creamish patch right where the bend in the wing sits on the side and down towards the belly. The rest of the bird is a tannish/khaki brown and the wing is outlines in a darker tan/bronze.

I can't get close to it and can only spot it through the binoculars, therefore a picture would be impossible with my standard digital camera. I'm curious because it has been hanging out for several weeks, so I'm hoping maybe it's a female going to bless us with the opportunity to watch her rear a brood. Or if it's a lonely male, hoping to get in with the domestics..
 
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Thanks. I was just coming back to say I figured her to be a ring necked female. Her colors are a little more exaggerated than most of the pictures, because the back of her neck almost looks black, but all the markings match up. Thanks again.
 
Odd though that she is here by herself. Shouldn't she be in a flock?

I wonder if she's here for this breeding season or if she is just passing through on migration... Are they still migrating?
 

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