Bird

Ruddy Duck

Oxyura jamaicensis

A winter visitor to Florida, found in all 67 counties and 9 habitats.

Here: Winter
Nesting: Not known to nest here
Range: All 67 counties
Habitats: 9

Male Ruddy Duck, whole bird — **Male**. (c) Pam Hardy, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 4.0. iNaturalist photo 653974161. Source-provided large resize; no crop or image edits.

At a glance

Group: Birds
Here: Winter
Nesting: Not known to nest here
Range: All 67 counties
Habitats: 9
Habitat models: Winter

Where it lives

The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.

Habitats in Florida 9

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 9

WinterSouth Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh; Floridian Highlands Freshwater MarshRegional / representative. Shown: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Georgia; representative pond ecosystem, a neighboring state.Georgia pond and emergent wetland, Robert 'Bob' Hynes, 1997. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.

WinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)

Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.

Winter

Depression ponds and limesinks

Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.

WinterCentral Florida Herbaceous Pondshore; Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.

Winter

Freshwater tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

WinterFlorida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh; Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh

Sounds, bays and tidal flats

Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.

WinterOpen Water (Brackish/Salt)

Other habitats in its models (17)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Florida.

Open Water (Aquaculture) Winter.
Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.
Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Winter.
South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Winter.
South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Winter.
Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Winter.
Central Interior and Appalachian Floodplain Systems Winter.
Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Winter.
South-Central Interior Large Floodplain Winter.