Print page  Ruddy ducks and white-headed ducks  Male ruddy duck
swimming in pond  Image: Nigel Blake  Ruddy ducks are native to
North America and, like white-headed ducks, are a member of the
stifftail family. They were brought to the UK in the 1930s and
1940s for captive wildfowl collections. Escapees first bred in
the wild in 1952, and by 2000 the UK population numbered 6,000
birds. They would not have made it here, however, without the
help of humans.  The white-headed duck is the only stifftail to
occur naturally in Europe, with a patchy distribution running
from the western Mediterranean through to Central and East Asia.
Most breed in Russia and Kazakhstan, and winter in the eastern
Mediterranean, Turkey and Asia. There is a small resident
population in Spain.  In contrast to the ruddy duck in North
America, numbers have declined severely over the last century,
from 100,000 birds to fewer than 10,000. Hunting and habitat
loss have been the main causes. The species is globally
threatened with extinction.