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Ring-necked Ducks are small diving ducks. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are different. In addition, males have different breeding and eclipse plumages. Male Ring-necked Ducks in breeding plumage are almost all black-and-white, with a black head, with a peaked hind crown, neck, chest and back. The belly and flanks are white. The upperwings are black, with light-grey flight feathers that have a black terminal band on the upperwing. The underwings are white. Under most circumstances, the cinnamon-coloured ring around the neck is invisible. In eclipse the parts that are white/grey turn brownish with some vermiculation and the parts that are black lose their gloss and become dark-grey. The base of the bill, which has a neat white circumference in breeding plumage, becomes diffuse. Females have a much more inconspicuous plumage. They are basically entirely dark greyish-brown, with a greyish head with off-white eye-rings, lores and edges around the ear coverts. The back is dark brownish-grey, while the front is more brownish, as are the wing panels. The irises of males are golden-yellow, while those of females are brown. The most easily distinguishing feature of both sexes is the bill: It is grey, with a white ring near the tip, and with a dark-grey "nail" (pointy tip). The white ring is unique. The legs and feet are grey. Juveniles are duller brown than adult females; the band around the bill is either faint or absent.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Ring-necked Duck is available HERE .

Ring-necked Ducks are a strongly migratory species of North America. Their breeding range encompasses roughly the Saint Lawrence Basin and the Great Lakes, up to Hudson Bay in Canada and to southern New Foundland in the north-eastern US, plus much of central Canada and extending into south-western Canada, up to roughly the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. There are also some breeding sites in central Alaska. Their winter quarters are anywhere in the western US along the Rocky Mountains, down the East coast of US southward from the Carolinas, all the southern states of the US and basically all of Mexico, down to the base of the Yukatan peninsula. There is also a population overwintering in tropical central America, including basically all islands of the Caribbean. During their migration they can be found anywhere in between. Ring-necked Ducks are known to be "enterprising", with small flocks sometimes appearing in coastal areas of western Europe.

In Europe Ring-necked Ducks are found as vagrants only. Most reports come from the British Isles, including Ireland, but sometimes they also reach the continental coastline, the Baltic Sea and inland waterways in cental, western and south-western Europe.

Ring-necked Ducks are diving ducks that live in fresh water habitats.

J. Pires first spotted Ring-necked Ducks on Terceira Island, Azores, in November 2018.

Both G. Pinelas and J. Pires report finding a Ring-necked Duck in Mora, Evora, Portugal, in May 2019.

In January 2020, J. Pires found Ring-necked Ducks at Lagoa de Albufeira, near Sesimbra, Setubal, Portugal.