It is sometimes included with the latter in the genus Oxyura, but the masked ducks are now considered the descendants of a missing link in the Oxyurini evolution, having changed little for millions of years.

Primarily not migratory, masked ducks are reported as very uncommon vagrants in the southernmost United States, along the Mexican border and in Florida.

[5] Masked ducks breed in any freshwater body with marsh vegetation and surrounded by heavy tree cover.

Breeding adult males have a rust-colored body with a black face and mottled wings.

Adult females, winter males, and juveniles have a barred brownish gray body, with two horizontal, dark-colored stripes running through the buff-colored face.