Summer plumage in the winter?

[Ryan Schain]

This Ruddy Duck was badly lit so the photograph is not good, but has anyone seen a drake in its summer plumage in January like this before? This was shot today, January 2nd. Out of the 40 or 50 Ruddy Ducks I saw, this was the only one in its summer plumage.

[John Chardine]

Ryan- Thanks for bringing this up. I don't really have an answer in this case but here's some background info that may be useful. Sorry if this is old news to you.

Moulting patterns in ducks are complex, and not typical of many other species of birds. Most male ducks moult into their typical breeding plumage in late summer/early fall and hold that plumage through the winter to late spring/early summer of the next year. They then moult into their cryptic "eclipse" plumage in the summer before they become flightless and moult all their primary (flight) feathers at once. So a male duck's breeding plumage is really their winter plumage in a sense.

Having said all this, Ruddys are one of the few duck species that moult in a more traditional avian way whereby the males show their bright, breeding plumage in the summer, and moult to a cryptic female appearance for the winter.

In studying primary moult in seabirds I have found that the odd individual is way out in terms of moult timing. This bird may be an example. Another thought is that this is a bird from the extreme southern part of the species range, where moult timing might be quite different.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Thanks for starting this topic, Ryan! I don't remember seeing a Ruddy Duck this time of the year in breeding plumage, either. John's explanations make sense to me.

[Trey Barron]

I looked this up in Ruddy Ducks & Other Stifftails Their Behavior and Ecology by Johnsgard and Carbonell. Ruddy ducks are a little different from most ducks as John mentioned. They exhibit a different pattern than most ducks and can start their prebreeding molt in January. My guess is that this is a dominant male (attain breeding plumage sooner and retain longer) and he has got an early start on the breeding season. The pre-breeding molt starts with the blue bill and then they attain the chestnut body plumage. The remiges are then shed (flightless) and then followed by the retrices. This causes them to be flightless twice in one year which happens again during post-breeding molt