This post is titled “Bird of the Week: Ruddy Duck.” It probably should be more like “bird of the month.” I got busy with my day job and hadn’t posted for about a month. I’ll try hard to get another post out before another month goes by!

One of my ongoing wildlife photography projects is to photograph the 26 ducks species that spend part of the year in Western Washington. A few weeks ago I found one that I hadn’t photographed yet–the Ruddy Duck.

I had been having trouble finding this duck for several years. Then a search on eBird a few weeks ago reported a flock of 25 of them at Bitter Lake in Seattle. The lake is only 15 minutes from my home so I was able to make a quick trip the next day and found the ducks.

This is now one of my favorite ducks. The male ducks are quite attractive with their unusual sky-blue colored bills. The ducks in these photos are still in the process of changing from non-breeding colors to breeding colors. Once fully in breeding colors the body feathers will be a deep chestnut color and the black cap will be even darker.