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Ruff

ID Info
Ruff by Marco Valentini / Macaulay Library
Sandpipers SilhouetteSandpipers
RuffCalidris pugnax
  • ORDER: Charadriiformes
  • FAMILY: Scolopacidae

Basic Description

A male Ruff in breeding plumage is an outlandish mix of flamboyant head tufts and shaggy neck "ruffs" in a seemingly limitless array of black, buff, russet, white, and bold bars and spots. These showy males display and occasionally fight on communal display grounds where they vie for the attention of smaller, brown-and-white females. Aside from the bizarre breeding males, this species is a fairly typical shorebird, feeding largely on insects and other invertebrates and utilizing an array of wetland habitats throughout the year. Ruffs gather in huge concentrations of up to one million birds on West African nonbreeding grounds, and a few stray individuals visit North America each year.

More ID Info
Range map for Ruff
Year-roundBreedingMigrationNonbreeding
Range map provided by Birds of the World
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Other Names

  • Combatiente (Spanish)
  • Combattant varié (French)
  • Cool Facts
    • The extravagant plumage of male Ruffs comes in an almost endless variety of colors and pattern combinations. (This is definitely not a "if you've seen one, you've seen them all" kind of bird.) Researchers in the Netherlands once examined 1,800+ males and recorded 800 different plumage variations among them.
    • Breeding male Ruffs gather on a communal display arena, known as a lek, for a chance to mate with females. Three types of males exist, varying in appearance and mating strategy, and these differences are all controlled by a single “supergene.” See “Among Ruffs, Some ‘Fight-Loving Fighters’ Don’t Like to Fight” for all the fascinating details.
    • Ruffs gather in huge numbers in Africa’s Sahel region, just south of the Sahara, during the nonbreeding season. A single roost site in Senegal (Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary) has hosted nearly one million individuals of this species.
    • Though the Ruff's scientific name is now Calidris pugnax ("fighting sandpiper"), it used to be known as Philomachus pugnax ("fight-loving fighter"). Both names refer to the males' tendency to joust with one another on display grounds.
    • The female of this species is sometimes known as a "Reeve."
    • The oldest banded Ruff on record was 13 years and 11 months old.