These are the quintessential duck, taking the rank as the most abundant duck in the world. The mallard is the ancestor to most domesticated breeds of ducks and can be found in nearly every town in North America.
Males and females have distinct differences in their plumage displays; males having a glossy green head, white ring on neck, brown chest, black rear, and yellow bill, and females have a more muted plumage display of mottled brown with an orangish brown bill. Both sexes have a vibrant blue stripe or “speculum” on their wings. Other than coloration, males’ and females’ size and appearance is very similar; approximately two feet in length, two to three pounds, and having flat wide bills.
Mallards are known as dabbling ducks—they feed underwater by tipping forward and grazing. What makes these ducks so prevalent is their adaptability to almost any wetland environment and their wide range of preferred food sources. Mallards are omnivores and will eat seeds, stems, roots, insects, mollusks, tadpoles, frogs, earthworms, small fish, etc.
The common goldeneye is called so (quite obviously) because of its strikingly amber eye that is accentuated by its glistening green-black (male) or brown head (female). This medium-sized duck is a bit smaller than a mallard at approximately 18 inches in length and weighing one to two pounds. From an aerial perspective, adult males are all black with a black head and back, but nearly all white on the sides with a notable white circle on their cheeks. Adult females have an entirely brown head with grayish brown body plumage. Fun fact: The eyes of the common goldeneye change drastically over its adolescence, from dark purple to blue to greenish blue to pale green, then finally to bright amber yellow when they reach adulthood.
Think mohawk or windblown or Bride of Frankenstein, and you may be able to picture the great crest of feathers atop the hooded merganser’s head. Hooded merganser crests or hoods are fan-shaped and collapsible feathers that can stand up straight or lay flat on their head. They are small ducks with thin bills, approximately 18 inches in length and weighing just over one pound. Much like the goldeneye, male mergansers are black and white with a vibrant yellow eye, and females are a more muted gray and brown.
Wood ducks are one of the most strikingly beautiful ducks in the waterfowl family. The males have unmatched iridescent shimmering greens, purples, and pinks decorating their crested heads, backs, and wings. The rest of their bodies vary in ornate patterning; their sides look like a sepia tone topography map, while their breast is the color of a mottled chestnut shell, and their wing speculum a polished sapphire. The females, while less colorful, sport an elegant gray silver head with a white accent around their eyes, their breasts like granite, and a bright shimmer of color pokes out from their wing bands. Wood ducks are one of few species whose strong claws can grip bark, allowing them to perch in trees. They are similar in size to a hooded merganser.
The preferred meal for the truly omnivorous wood duck is mostly seeds, with some aquatic plants and insects. In many parts of the country, wood ducks rely on acorns as a major source of their diet. These ducks typically dabble and only do shallow diving.
Wood ducks are also cavity nesters and they love areas that are thickly wooded or highly vegetative (like large cattail marshes and beaver ponds). Wood ducks can be spotted at Camp Polk Meadow Preserve in the cattails. Their small stature and short, broad wings make them highly maneuverable in these areas. These ducks lay nine to 14 eggs and often will lay eggs in other mother’s nests, sometimes called “dump nests,” where there is no incubation. These are some of the only ducks that will have two broods of ducklings a year (more common in southern North America than northern).
This is our smallest and most energetic diving duck with some major flare to boot. The male bufflehead’s oversized head glimmers green and purple iridescent with the appearance of a large pie slice removed, leaving a white patch on the back of its head. The rest of its body is a sleek and stark torpedo of black on white. The female is an unassuming brown and gray duck with a large head and distinctive white cheek patch. Both sexes measure around one foot in length and weigh between one half and just-over one pound.
Buffleheads are impressive divers and use their skills to catch aquatic invertebrates, insects, and mollusks as a main food source. Dives for food typically last between 12 and 25 seconds.
These small ducks choose woodpecker and Northern flicker holes as their nesting cavities, often preferring cavities found in aspen and poplars. Bufflehead are another mostly monogamous species and will stay with their partner for a few years, laying one brood of four to 17 eggs per year. Males will often leave the females during incubation in order to molt, but will return to help protect the ducklings.
Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form taxon; they do not represent a monophyletic group (the group of all descendants of a single common ancestral species), since swans and geese are not considered ducks. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water.
You know the green-headed males. On females, note the relatively strong eyeline compared to most other species. Mallards are our most familiar duck and the only one present all year-round in large numbers. This circumstance should be taken not as license to ignore them, but as an invitation to enjoy watching their cute, fuzzy babies from May through August.
Males have a dark rump; both sexes have little white squares in the wing (the speculum), sometimes visible. In much of Marin, gadwalls take a distant second place for ducks you might see in summer, as well as becoming abundant in winter. Breeding gadwall are an uncommon but not unheard of Bay Area phenomenon, while you can usually find a few non-breeding birds scattered around.
One of the easiest ducks to recognize due to the extremely large (“spatulate”) bill and distinct set of colors: dark green head, white breast and rump, reddish flanks. To begin developing attentiveness to the shape of different ducks, start with female shovelers and find those shovel mouths.
All of the previous dabblers were sizable birds, but green-wings are the smallest of all our ducks and are dwarfed by neighboring shovelers and the like. On males, look for the pretty red-brown head with green eye patch and vertical white spur on shoulder.
Notes: Ring-necks are reminiscent of their relatives the scaups, but have a number of distinguishing features. The “ring-neck” is often utterly invisible in the field (see why I question those official bird-namers?), but they do also have a ring around the bill. In fact, they have two: one at the base and one at the tip. They also have gray flanks (darker than scaup), a black back (much darker than scaup), and a white spur around the shoulder.
