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Ruff
COMBATTANT
VARIÉ
Philomachus pugnax
(Linnaeus)
Occasional visitor.
The Ruff is a widespread breeding
bird in northern Eurasia, wintering mostly in Africa and India. A rare but regular
visitor to North America, it has been recorded in nearly every state and
province, and is a rare breeder in Alaska. Male Ruffs occur in an extraordinary
variety of spectacular breeding plumages, their showy neck-feathers ranging in
colour from white to deep chestnut or black. In contrast, females
(traditionally known as Reeves) and non-breeding males could easily be mistaken
for Lesser Yellowlegs, though the small head and slender neck suggest an Upland
Sandpiper; key field-marks are the two white crescents on either side of the
rump. Leg colour varies from bright orange in spring to dull yellow in fall.
Ruffs have been reported at least
17 times in Manitoba; every sighting but one was between May and July. The
first three were all seen at Churchill by several observers: a well-described
moulting adult on 23 June 1970; a male, both described and photographed, on
23–24 June 1974; and a subadult male, also photographed, on 17–26 June 1978.1-3
Also near Churchill, a courting party of one male and three females was an
exciting find at La Pérouse Bay on 26 June 1983; the male was last seen on 2
July.4 Additional, undocumented sightings occurred near Cape
Churchill (three birds in 1986 and two in 1987), and at Churchill on 6 June
1994.
The first Ruff to be recorded in
southern Manitoba was a dark, chestnut-ruffed male that visited Oak Hammock
Marsh on 1–6 May 1983 and delighted many observers. Further sightings at that
location involved well-described females on 5 July 1984 and 9 June 1998.
Stewart Holohan recorded two Ruffs during his shorebird studies at the former
Grassmere sewage treatment site near Winnipeg: a male on 28 July 1985 and a
female on 28 May 1989. A female also paused briefly at the Beausejour sewage
lagoons on 3 June 1988, and a male at the Steinbach lagoons on 9–14 May 1992
was photographed. The most recent bird briefly visited Dauphin Lake on 3 May
2001. No details are available for sightings near St. Ambroise on 27 May 1986
and at Seven Sisters dam on 6 October 1988.
1 Pittaway & Nero 1971; 2 Ribble
1975; 3 T. Burke et al., photo in MORC file; 4 Reynolds
1984.
G.E. Holland, C.E. Curtis, R.F.
Koes, P. Taylor
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