Ruff (bird)

The ruff is a medium-sized wading bird that breeds in marshes and wet meadows across northern Eurasia. It has a breeding plumage that includes brightly coloured head tufts, bare orange facial skin, extensive black on the breast, and the large collar of ornamental feathers that inspired this bird’s English name. The female has one brood per year and lays four eggs in a well-hidden ground nest.

About Ruff (bird) in brief

The ruff is a medium-sized wading bird that breeds in marshes and wet meadows across northern Eurasia. This species shows marked sexual dimorphism; the male is much larger than the female. It has a breeding plumage that includes brightly coloured head tufts, bare orange facial skin, extensive black on the breast, and the large collar of ornamental feathers that inspired this bird’s English name. The female has one brood per year and lays four eggs in a well-hidden ground nest, incubating the eggs and rearing the chicks, which are mobile soon after hatching, on her own. Predators of wader chicks and eggs include mammals such as foxes, feral cats and stoats, and birds such as large gulls, corvids and skuas. Classified as \”least concern\” on the IUCN Red List criteria, the global conservation concerns are relatively low because of the large numbers that breed in Scandinavia and the Arctic. However, the range in much of Europe is contracting because of land drainage, increased fertiliser use, the loss of mown or grazed breeding sites, and over-hunting. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae in 1758 as Tringa pugnax. It was moved to the monotypic genus Philomachus by German naturalist Blasius Merrem in 1804. More recent DNA research has shown it fits comfortably into the wader genus Calidris. The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds.

The specific epithet refers to the aggressive behaviour of the bird at its mating arenas. The original English name for this bird, dating back to at least 1465, is the ree, perhaps derived from a dialectical term meaning ‘frenzied’. The current name was first recorded in 1634, and is derived from the ruff, an exaggerated collar fashionable from the mid-sixteenth century to themid-seventeenth century, since the male bird’s neck ornamental feather resemble the neck-wear. The ruff has a distinctive gravy boat appearance, with a small head, medium-length bill, longish neck and pot-bellied body. It has long legs that are variable in colour but usually yellow or orange. In the May-to-June breeding season, the typical male’s legs are solid white, with solid black chest or white chesting, with the solid white chest or black chesting on the solid chest. The typical female has an elaborate plumage, being black, white, white or barred on the chest, and he has bare orange tufts and a neck ruff. He is 29–32cm long with a 54–60 cm wings, and weighs about 180 cm pan. The bird has a deeper flight stroke than other waders of a similar size, and displays thin, indistinct white wing sides and white ovals on the tail.

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