Help with duck ID please

[Mr_Jeff]

It's driving me crazy trying to identify a duck that I saw yesterday. So far all websites have been useless. I noticed alot of movement in the brush next to my house yesterday evening near a hedge of roses. I thought it was the dog but I looked over and he was asleep in the yard. I could see brush waving around as something was moving through it so I walked up to the hedge to try and find it. Up jumped a duck followed by eight to ten newly hatched ducklings and they zipped off into the cornfield.

She gathered everyone together and went into some near by tall grass and stayed there. I crept up to get a closer look and she popped out again doing the broken wing thing that mother birds will do. This duck was blue/black almost a gunmetal color. The body was squarish. The neck was very slender and long in proportion to her body. Overall about two thirds the size of a mallard. On her head were curvy tear drop splashed of white over the eyes, with the point of the tear drop pointing back and curving down slightly. A crest the same color as her feathers came off the back of the head and pointed down. Cant remember the color of bill and feet. She flew off a short distance at one point and I think there were some light of white bars under her wings.

Does anyone know what in the world I saw? I haven't seen one around here before and I can't find anything close in a picture.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Sounds like a female Wood Duck to me:

 

[Mr_Jeff]

The second pic is very close. If I have a chance to get close again I'll have to take a second look. Thanks for the help. I'm gonna call it a female wood duck.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Mandarin Ducks look very similar to Wood Ducks - but, I seriously doubt there's a Mandarin Duck loose and breeding in the cornfields of Michigan!

Here's a Mandarin:

And here's another Wood Duck - they can vary quite a bit in their markings (the amount of white around the eye, the specific shade of color, etc):

 

[jaj121159]

Quote:
Probably not, but I did see a drake Mandarin hanging with some marina ducks on the Tawas River in East Tawas, Michigan once. An escapee no doubt.

I can almost guarantee it's a woodie. Most populous breeding duck in Michigan, and a duck most people do not recognize when they see one, especially a hen.

 

[Mr_Jeff]

Yup. Other than the specific overall color, it matches the markings of a wood duck. Not one that I see very often around here despite living on a river. I think the big problem identifying it was the fact that every photo I looked at of a wood duck was male, could not find a female anywhere. Even in my Audobon book. Thanks for the help.