how to tell male vs female?

[sbennett]

how do we tell which of our ducks are males or females? we have 2 whites and 4 mallards

 

[SportTees]

Curl tail feather on the males. The females are noisier.

 

[shelleyd2008]

If they are old enough you can tell by their tail feathers. The drakes will have 3 curly feathers on the top of their tails.

Females make a definite 'WHACK WHACK WHACK' sound, the drakes do not.

Girls lay eggs, boys don't

It should be fairly easy to tell with your mallards. The males get a very green looking head, the females always have the 'baby feathers' look.

In this pic, the bird in the center of the pic is a rouen drake, which has basically the same color pattern as a mallard, these are just bigger. In the back you can see a brown duck, that is a rouen female duck, same thing, looks like a mallard, just bigger.

The Black duck on the left is a cayuga drake, and you can see his curly drake feathers. Also, in the bottom right corner is the booty of another rouen drake, and you can see his drake feathers as well. The pekin on the back right of the pic is also a drake, but it is a bit harder to see his feathers becuase of the cayuga duck's big ol' head in the way

Hope this helps.

 

[sbennett]

from this i think we have a male and female white - not sure about the mallards - they haven't all gotten rid of their baby feathers yet. they def. aren't old enough to lay yet.

 

[NYREDS]

The Mallards will look the same for some time-it's called eclipse plumage. When they molt into their nuptual plumage it's easy to tell them apart-the males are prettier-just like people

Before then sound i the way to tell but I always thought they were saying Quack not Whack??