Ruff

• GeneralMales grow ruffs of feathers in colours unique to each bird, for their contests on the courtship lek.
• It has three genetically determined types of male: the territorials, with a dark ruff, which defend a spot on the lek; the satellites, with a white ruff, which slip in without fighting; and the faeders, which mimic females in size and plumage and mate furtively.
• Those three strategies are coded in a supergene, a block of more than a hundred genes inherited as a whole, which arose from a chromosomal inversion about four million years ago.
• No two males have the same ruff: the individual pattern is so variable that it works as a mark of identity within the lek.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Tundra and wet meadows of northern Eurasia; it winters in wetlands of Africa and southern Europe

Birth weight

Precocial: born covered in down and leaves the nest within a few hours

Size at birth

Precocial: born covered in down and leaves the nest within a few hours

Sexual maturity

2 years

Gestation / incubation

22 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

4 eggs

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calidris_pugnax

Best time: From March to April and from August to October in Iberian rice fields and marshes, on passage; in spring the males show their breeding ruffs.