Ruff

Any birder would have to admit that the Ruff is one of the coolest birds out there. They come in a variety of colors, they put on as flamboyant a show as any bird on Earth, and their social system is complex to the point of being indecipherable. Oh, yeah, and they sometimes stray to Louisiana, where they're on the Review List of rare species.

On February 20, 2010, while censusing birds for the Winter Bird Atlas, Steve Cardiff, Donna Dittmann, and I had the male Ruff above in the Thornwell quad. It stuck around for quite a few others to relocate it as well, by searching among the swarms of shorebirds.

One other cool fact about these birds is that males are called Ruffs and female Reeves, although I must admit I call them all Ruffs.