Ruffs - Massachusetts and Colorado

A number of Ruffs, ABA Code 3, have been reported this spring, the latest from Rowley, Massachusetts, on 4 May. On May 1, the editor of Birding, Ted Floyd, found a Ruff, Philomachus pugnax, at Boulder Reservoir near Boulder, Colorado, a one-day wonder.  Also in Rowley, MA, a second, darker Ruff was reported on 3 May from Stilt Pond.

The most recent Rowley, MA, bird appears to be a white-variant adult, as pictured by David Sibley in The Sibley Guide to Birds, on page 189.  The Colorado bird has sparked some controversy, not as to its straightforward identification, but as to its gender.  Reported as a female or Reeve, experts from the U.K. and Kevin Karlson of shorebird guide fame, think the CO bird is a male. 

Three types of male Ruffs have been described.  Unlike the more common reproductive strategy in most shorebirds, monogamy, Ruffs use one of the more unusual strategies, polygamy.  In their special type of polygamy, Ruff males defend a small territory on a lek.  Lekking males are larger than female Reeves, and while displaying on their arena, they await females for the sole purpose of reproduction.  In addition to the wildly plumed males, there is a second group of smaller satellite males, less elaborately decorated, who do not defend a territory. While territorial males are strut-walking, wing-fluttering, wing-lifting, and tail-shaking, it is often the satellite males who breed with the females.

Recently, biometrics has revealed a third type of Ruff male, called faeders.  In a study in southern Belarus in 2004, 242 birds were sexed by DNA analysis.  Three birds, identified as males, had female plumage, but their wing lengths were intermediate between females and males with breeding plumage.  Less than one percent of male Ruffs are considered faeders.

The name Ruff is a contraction of the word ruffle, the spectacular feathers on male's necks and heads.  Perhaps because of the large size differences between males and females, the smaller females were given the distinct name Reeve, similar to the different names for male and female game birds.

Regardless, Ruffs have the most elaborate breeding system of all the Scolopacidae, and they are the most-studied.

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging It