This diving duck is one of the more common duck species during the winter and migration on area lakes as well as one of the more common ducks in the Park. Because there is little of its habitat in the Park, however, it can still be considered a rare species in the Park, perhaps most likely to be found on some of the reservoirs along the Park boundary.

Special Note on the Ring-neck Parasites:
Feather mites of the genus Freyana (Freyanidae; det. B. M. O?Connor) were collected from a duck specimen in the Park collections from somewhere between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in November of 1937.

Stupka (1963) cites six records, all from early to mid November at the Sinks, Greenbrier, Tremont, the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River, and stranded on the Newfound Gap Road by an early winter storm. Spring records come from Chilhowee Lake on the North Carolina side of the Park (April 8, 2001) and the Cades Cove sewage treatment lagoons (May 2000).

References:

Stupka, A. 1963. Notes on the Birds of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

Gough, G. A., Sauer, J. R., Iliff, M. Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter. 1998. Version 97.1. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD.