Oil on Panel - 4 x 4 inches
Here I have painted a Ring-necked Duck in a less complex style than usual. The hard edge of the water meets a tan-colored background void of complicated brush strokes and detail. The bird is simplified, yet the attentiveness given to this painting was no less measured.
When I paint birds, I like to learn about them, too. On January 15, 2021, I photographed this handsome fellow in the icy waters of Agate Bay in Two Harbors, MN. Besides the overall coloring indicating it was a male, the tan and gray feathers on the side of its belly designated it as nonbreeding. At the time, I didn’t know that. My intuition told me that no birds breed in Minnesota during the wintertime, so its breeding capability, or lack thereof, never crossed my mind; but isn’t it great when a bird’s feathers have something to say besides determining its sex? I think so.
Diving for food in frigid Lake Superior, this duck was busy, so I never captured its head feathers fluffed and peaked. It’s a stunning feature contained in most photographs you can easily find on the Internet.
Ring-necked Ducks eat all sorts of things, from plants and insects to crustaceans. They breed mainly in Canada, and due to their smaller size, spend less time incubating their eggs than bigger members of the Anatidae family (geese, swans and ducks). For example, Canada Geese have the ability to store more fat which helps sustain their metabolism through incubation compared to smaller birds. They maintain an incubation constancy (the time nests are at incubation temperature) over 90% compared to around 85% for Ring-necked Ducks whose lower endurance for fasting means they must navigate increased environmental factors during incubation compared to larger birds.
Stay wild, my friends.
References
All about Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (2026). Ring-necked Duck, Identification. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ring-necked_Duck/id
Hohman, W. L. (1986). Incubation Rhythms of Ring-Necked Ducks. The Condor, 88(3), 290-296. https://doi.org/10.2307/1368875
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