Where did all the male ducks go?
by Lauretta Young

A female mallard and her babies on a Cedar Mill pond this spring. Photo © 2011 by Jeff Young

It appears that all the ducks in summer, after the ducklings have grown up, look brown and drab. Where are the brightly colored Wood Duck males or the glossy green heads of the male Mallards? Several observant bird watchers have asked me if the males migrate earlier than the females. Others have theories that the males are hiding somwhere.

They are in fact “hiding” to some degree in that they molt (lose feathers) and look more like females after the breeding season. The exact timing of this change varies on the specific duck species. In some ducks such as Mallards the change-over is later in the summer compared to earlier-breeding ducks such as the Wood Duck.

Many other bird species also change into more dull winter plumage—for some of them the sexual dimorphism (i.e. how males and females differ) is less dramatic even in non-breeding plumage than the ducks. The change over into female-like appearance of feathers in ducks is called the “eclipse” plumage.

There is a brief period when some of the flight feathers are molting where the birds cannot fly. One notices a very drab appearance, which mostly fits in with the gradual change in grasses from green to brown and tan as the summer rains decrease and grasses go to seed. The ducks also are quieter. If you think back to a spring pond and its sounds, the fall pond sounds are very muted just like the coloration of the duck inhabitants.

However for those interested in puzzles and minutia, one can still recognize that there are male ducks mixed in with the females and the juveniles. For Mallards the key feature is the bill. In females all year long the bill is somewhat orange with a black “saddle” like splash over the top. In male Mallards the bill is uniformly yellow or straw colored. This feature is certainly less of a marker when the males have their spectacular green glossy heads in their breeding plumage—who would even look at bills?? But in the winter, when both males and females are a dull mottled brown, the bill difference is obvious and does not require a lot of inspection to see the difference. But one does have to be interested in that degree of detail, and for some non-birders this is just the type of trivia that gets to be the brunt of jokes.

So if this helps you enjoy your wildlife viewing, take a look. If this seems over the top in terms of detail just rest assured that, yes, the males are still there…

Lauretta Young MD is a retired psychiatrist who now teaches Mind body Medicine and Leadership at OHSU and also teaches at PSU in Community Health. She also takes out birders of all abilities on customized private bird watching tours in local areas. See her web site at www.portlandbirdwatching.com and more of her husband’s photos there and on our flickr page at www.flickr.com/photos/youngbirders

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