Ruff
Calidris pugnax
birdyday · Batumi, Adjara Georgia field photo
Key facts in one look
- Size
- Male 29–32 cm, 130–254 g; female 22–26 cm, 70–170 g
- Diet
- Insects, crustaceans, molluscs, worms, seeds
- Status in Georgia
- Migrant
- Recorded regions
- Kvemo Kartli; Adjara; Shida Kartli; Abkhazia; Samtskhe-Javakheti
- Habitat
- Lake and marsh margins, wet meadows, fields
- Family
- Scolopacidae
- Conservation
- Global LC (2025); Georgia LC (2024)
In the breeding season the male ruff wears a true ruff: a large collar of black, chestnut or white feathers grows on its neck, tufts appear on its head, and its face shows bare orange skin. The male is much larger than the female, 29–32 cm long, and is the largest species in the genus Calidris. It breeds in the marshes and wet meadows of northern Eurasia and winters mainly in Africa; in Georgia it stops on migration, from March to October. In winter plumage both male and female are grey-brown. If a pot-bellied, small-headed, long-necked bird with pink or orange legs stands on a lake shore, it is most likely a ruff.
Identification
Ruff: how to identify it
It is a pot-bellied sandpiper with a small head, a medium-length bill, a long neck and long legs. Adults have pink to orange legs, young birds dark greenish ones. In flight it shows a thin, indistinct white wing bar and white ovals on the sides of the tail, and it beats its wings more deeply and slowly than other waders of its size.
In the breeding season the male has orange legs, bill and bare, warty facial skin, tufts on the head and a large collar on the neck. Each male has his own colours: black, chestnut or white, plain, barred or irregular. The breast carries a lot of black and the belly is white. In winter the collar, tufts and bare facial skin are lost.
The female is 22–26 cm long and clearly smaller than the male. In summer her back is grey-brown, with dark-centred, white-fringed feathers and black blotches on the breast and flanks. In winter both sexes look alike, grey-brown above and white below, with grey mottling on the breast. At that time you can tell male and female apart only by size.
Young birds have a neat, scaly pattern on the back with dark feather centres and a strong buff wash below. The legs are dark greenish. A scaly back and a buff breast are a good sign of a young ruff.
Colour
Swatches are illustrative. Do not identify a species by colour alone.
Often confused with
On migration and in winter it chooses the muddy margins of lakes, marshes, rivers and floodplains, as well as freshly mown or grazed short-grass meadows and wheat and rice fields. It usually roosts at night in shallow water by a lake shore. In Georgia most records come from Kvemo Kartli, from Kumisi Lake, Gardabani Municipality and Jandari Lake. It is often seen in Adjara, near Batumi and in the Chorokhi Delta, in Shida Kartli, at Nadarbazevi Lake and in Gori and Kaspi municipalities, in Abkhazia, near Gagra, Pitsunda, Lake Inkiti and Sukhumi, and in Samtskhe-Javakheti, in Ninotsminda Municipality. There are single records from Kakheti, in Sagarejo Municipality. It breeds in extensive lowland freshwater marshes and damp meadows of northern Eurasia and avoids barren tundra.
The ruff map combines public research-grade iNaturalist observations. Regions are taken from the records-by-region table, and the status column separates regions with enough records from regions with too few records.
Data: Reptiles.ge + iNaturalist · Methodology
- Field observation
- Several records in one spot
- Photo record
- Region with records
When breeding it eats almost only land and water insects, both adults and larvae, especially beetles and flies. On migration and in winter its food is much more varied: caddisflies, water bugs, mayflies, grasshoppers, small crustaceans, spiders, small molluscs, worms, frogs and small fish, as well as the seeds of rice, cereals, sedges, grasses and water plants. It searches wet grass and soft mud for food, either probing with its bill or finding it by sight.
It is fully migratory and travels in large flocks of hundreds or thousands of birds; one flock in Senegal held a million birds. Some Siberian breeders make a round trip of up to 30,000 km to West Africa. It returns to the breeding grounds from March to mid-May and breeds from May to August. In Georgia most records fall in April, on spring migration, followed by September and August. Males gather at a lek, an open grassy arena: they flutter their wings, jump, raise their collars and lunge at rivals. The ruff is one of the few birds whose courtship display is aimed mainly at other males. About 84% of males are territorial, with a black or chestnut collar, about 16% are "satellites" with a white or mottled collar, and a very rare third form looks like a female. It is usually silent. The female alone lays 4 eggs in a well-hidden nest, incubates them and raises the chicks. Males leave the breeding grounds in late June or early July, females and young birds in July.
Globally the ruff is rated Least Concern (LC, 2025). The world population is about 3,900,000–8,300,000 birds, of which 2,600,000–5,600,000 are mature, and the number is falling. In Europe the breeding range has contracted north-eastwards by about 30%, the European population fell by more than 25% over three generations, and at European level it is rated Near Threatened (NT, 2021). At the same time breeding has shifted towards Asia, with numbers in western Siberia rising. It is threatened by the drainage of marshes and floodplains, oil pollution, peat extraction and the abandonment of meadows, which then become overgrown with reeds and scrub. In Hungary more pairs nested on moderately grazed meadows, with more than one cow per hectare. In Georgia it is rated Least Concern (LC, 2024).
Alexander Abuladze · birdyday · Vladimir Belinsky · Dmitry Ivanov · Marat Adiev · Nastya Klimova · Nikita Tiunov
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Yes. The 2024 Georgian checklist lists it as a migrant. In Georgia it is seen from March to October, most often in April, on spring migration, and in August and September. It does not breed in Georgia and only stops here on migration.
Most records come from Kumisi Lake in Kvemo Kartli. It is often seen near Batumi and in the Chorokhi Delta, at Nadarbazevi Lake, near Gagra and Pitsunda, and in Ninotsminda Municipality. Watch muddy lake shores and wet meadows.
The collar and head tufts are breeding plumage, which the male raises at the lek while fighting rivals and displaying. Each male has his own colour, black, chestnut or white, and this variety is thought to help the birds recognise one another. In winter the collar is moulted.
The male is 29–32 cm long and the female 22–26 cm, so size tells them apart easily. In the breeding season the male has a collar, head tufts and an orange face, while the female has a grey-brown, blotched back. In winter they look alike, and only size will help you.
When breeding, almost only insects, especially beetles and flies. On migration and in winter it also eats crustaceans, spiders, molluscs, worms, frogs, small fish and the seeds of rice, cereals and water plants. It searches for food in wet grass and soft mud.
In the marshes and wet meadows of northern Eurasia, from May to August. Males display at the lek, but only the female cares for the nest: she lays 4 eggs in a well-hidden nest, incubates them alone and raises the chicks. The chicks are mobile soon after hatching.
It is harmless to people. Globally and in Georgia it is rated Least Concern (LC), although its world population is falling and in Europe it is Near Threatened (NT). It is covered by the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA).
References
What this profile is based on
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
Prepared by the Reptiles.ge editorial team from the sources listed here.
