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The UK Bird Atlas

Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris)Where and when to see it in the UK

Winter visitor · reporting peaks January to February · Ducks, Swans, and Geese · BOU category AE

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris)
Becky Matsubara from El Sobrante, California, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Ring-necked Duck: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Ring-necked Duck has been recorded in 327 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (11%) in records to 2026. Winter visitor in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in January to February.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
21% or more of visits
High
5% to 21%
Moderate
1% to 5%
Low
under 1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 100%<1%Very high
February 97%<1%High
March 72%<1%Very high
April 47%<1%Low
May 12%<1%Low
June 7%<1%Low
July 4%<1%Very high
August 2%<1%Very high
September 4%<1%Low
October 27%<1%Low
November 49%<1%Very high
December 83%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in January

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HU31Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NF75Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland100%Very high
NJ90Aberdeen City, Scotland100%Very high
NO45Angus, Scotland100%Very high
NS57East Dunbartonshire, Scotland100%Very high
SD33Lancashire, England100%Very high
SD41Lancashire, England100%Very high
SH93Gwynedd, Wales100%Very high
SJ49Knowsley, England100%Very high
SK44Derbyshire, England100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.