Gender bending 3 month old mallards *** PIX ADDED!!!***

[chickensducks&agoose]

I got 2 mallard babies from a guy this spring. they hatched out on May 3rd, and are 3 months old. Both of them look the same, brown with purple/blue/teal wing bands... when will the males get guy plumage? Nobody has any curly feathers, but one quacks louder than the other... what do you think?

 

[xfilesnumber1fan]

My mallards are 18 weeks and my boys still not have the curl feather but are turning gray on the sides and the green is coming in..I could tell the boys from the girls along time ago..3 quacked and 3 sounded horse...Left to right
Girl,Boy,Girl,Boy dark one,Girl butt shot,Boy

 

[kswaterfowl]

You can often tell by bill color when the Mallards are about this age as well. The males have a yellow green bill while the females have the orange bill with the brown saddle development. ITS VERY CLEAR in the picture! A great example of another way to sex Mallards. Vent, Voice, Bill and Plumage are usually how we can figure out sex, in that order. But we have been raising them long enough that we can normally tell as ducklings which are which.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Okay then - I have to tag along on this thread and ask a question of my own.

I got two Mallards this year too, Rainstorm and Lullaby. Rainstorm is definately a drake - the bill color is right, the beginnings of a drake curl have been evident since he was very young, and he's got his hoarse, whispery boy voice. Lullaby's bill color is muddy - it might turn yellow/green, but it's got a orange/brown tinge to it too, and she sounds like a drake most of the time - hoarse and quiet just like Rainstorm. However, if we take Rainstorm away, out of Lullaby's sight, Lullaby "QUACKS!" good and proper like a girl duck.

They're only two months old, so I'll have to wait awhile yet to see who develops male plumage, but, according to what I've read, drake's vocal cords are strung differently and they can't make a loud quack like a girl - so Lullaby has to be a girl right? Maybe she's just mimicking the sounds Rainstorm makes most of the time and that's why she sounds like him. Maybe I have a hermaphrodite on my hands!

 

[kswaterfowl]

Sounds like a pair to me.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

I appreciate the posted pictures, and need to corral my ducks and take some of my own pix. I am having a problem telling the difference in your ducks... they all look alike, and look just like mine... i did notice however, that one of my ducks (dorothy and cute) has more brown on the bill, and the other one has more yellow.....

 

[xfilesnumber1fan]

Most of the time I can also go by bill color but I have a drake that has a jet black one..If is head wasnt green and sounded like a boy I would have been stumped when he was a baby....

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

these are the duckies who I managed to pen in for a minute before they both took off, winging across the pond!