Ruddy Shelduck

This morning I read several articles about President Trump's son, Don, Jr., shooting some rare ducks in Italy. For example, Newsweek noted, "Footage published by Field Ethos—a brand co-founded by Trump Jr.—shows him shooting ducks in the Venice Lagoon. In the video, Trump Jr. points out an orange duck, remarking, 'This is actually a rather uncommon duck for the area, not even sure what it is in English, but incredible shoot.' Andrea Zanoni, a regional councilor in Veneto, said the footage shows Trump Jr. with the body of a rare ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea), a species protected by Italian law. 'This is a species protected throughout Europe by the EU Birds Directive and, of course, by Italian law, which criminally punishes its killing and possession,' he said." Donald Trump, Jr. Responds to Accusations of Killing Protected Duck, February 4, 2025. 

I saw a photo of the orange ducks and instantly recognized the ruddy shelducks I'd seen in Kaziranga NP in Assam, India in December. They were beautiful and I never tired of seeing them, although they were quite common. In fact, we saw them in each of the four ranges in Kaziranga. I'd never heard of them prior to our trip. Wikipedia notes, "The male has orange-brown body plumage and a paler, orange-brown head and neck, separated from the body by a narrow black collar. The rump, flight feathers, tail-coverts and tail feathers are black and there are iridescent green speculum feathers on the inner surfaces of the wings. Both upper and lower wing-coverts are white, this feature being particularly noticeable in flight but hardly visible when the bird is at rest. The bill is black and the legs are dark grey. The female is similar but has a rather pale, whitish head and neck and lacks the black collar, and in both sexes, the colouring is variable and fades as the feathers age. The birds moult at the end of the breeding season and the male loses the black collar, but a further partial moult between December and April restores it. Juveniles are similar to the female but are a darker shade of brown." Wikipedia also notes that it is migratory, wintering in the "Indian subcontinent" (which includes India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka) and breeds in eastern Europe and central Asia. The IUCN rates it of "Least Concern," but populations in Europe are generally in decline, but rising in central and eastern Asia. 

This appears to be a female, left, and male, right.