Black Swedish duck feather color?

[ChristineR]

The feathers look green because of the way the light hits them. It's completely normal. My Black Swedish drake looks very green in the sun.

Here's a link to a good explanation:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/studying/feathers/color

 

[ShayBaby]

How old is your black swedish in this picture? I'm trying to find some growth patterns for them to be sure that is what I really have. Mine is about 3 weeks and is starting to get black wing feathers but not turning white on the breast yet like yours

Swedish ducklings hatch with white/yellow bibs. Sometimes it will become brighter or bigger with age, but you would almost definitely be able to tell a Swedish baby straight away.

 

[mandycarlo]

I have five swedish ducklings that hatched yesterday can anyone tell me if the marking on the eye means anything three have all black heads two have a strip on the eye? I want to keep a couple and would love to know the sex but I know it's hard to tell

 

[ShayBaby]

The stripe likely has nothing to do with gender but rather their breed purity/quality. Swedes with eye stripes (I have one myself) are likely not pure Swedish or poor/hatchery quality making them poory marked. Not that they won't make excellent pets!
As for sexing, at this young, you could try vent sexing carefully (watch some tutorial videos on YouTube or such to learn how to gently attempt). After the first couple days, your best bet is waiting a month or two until they start getting their big-kid voices.

 

[mandycarlo]

Thanks for the info

 

[inkedlady]

I had 3 baby ducks 2 had eye markings and turned out to be drakes they are lovely ducks

 

[jmckenzie]

We have six Swedish ducks, 8 wks old or so, & are trying to figure out which are drakes. There are 2 that have a louder "quack" but they still sound sort of raspy. The others have a very raspy sound with not much of a quack to them "yet." Does bill color, feather color, or anything else help you determine sex? I don't expect the drake curled feather for some time yet. We also have 2 that are more black, & they both have a bluish/greenish wing feather, & one has a greenish head. As far as I know there was no mallard in the mix here - one parent was blue & one parent was black. We certainly don't want 4 drakes, but it would be hard to part with any of them!
This one is a "quacker"

This one is not much of a "quacker" but has more "greenish" color.

I have video of their "quacking" but have to put it in a youtube format first I think.
TIA for any input you may have!

 

[barnyard betty]

I have 2 Black Swedish ducklings about 4-5 weeks old and they do have the green shimmer to their feathers. Looks like they will have greenish heads with pretty green laced back feathers. Both I suspect are drakes. Does anyone know if the wing bars will be more green, kind of like how Mallards have a blue/purple wing bar? That would be pretty

 

[Busybee1]

I have a brown one that hatched, both parents were black. Was there some funny business going on further back in the family gene pool?

 

[Laci D Hill]

A sure nuff loud QUACK is the female. A muttered noise is drake. My girls are very vocal about what happens around the yard whereas the drake is always low n quiet.