Young Welsh Harlequin Ducks - male or female?

[irisshiller]

Hello,

I posted some time ago about my brooding pair of Welsh Harlequin ducks. Well, 11 ducklings hatched, 10 survived, and now I have a flock of 10 young ducks!

They are about 10 weeks old now. They kind of surprised us by all looking similar, even after their feathers have come in. It is possible to distinguish between them, but there does not seem to be a distinguishable difference between males and females. They seem to be moulting again now, and I am wondering what will happen.

People are telling me that it is obvious which ones are the males - the ones with the white necks, or the ones with the blue stripe on their wings... but I am very confused. Some of them quack like females, others don't, and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the colours of their feathers. There are no drake curls either - and when I went to point it out to someone on the adult male, it seemed to have disappeared on him

Could anyone shed light on this? Are these still 'juvenile feathers' and will they get more distinguishable after this moult?

Thanks for helping a first time duck mum!
(On my second hatch now, my muscovy female has 14 new ducklings!)

Some pictures:
(midde one is from when they were little, last one is most recent)

 

[needlessjunk]

Well at that age if it quacks it's a female and if it is still peeping starting to get raspy it is a male. I'm not an expert but it looks like you have males by their coloring. Are their bills green? Green means it's a male. Drake feathers appear around 15 weeks give or take. My pekins got theirs at 12-14 weeks. Here is a sound bite to help

http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/artquacks.htm

 

[PtJudeRI]

A bit too old to go by their beaks, so Id have to agree... noises at this point until their nuptial plumage comes in.