Is she a different breed?

[PotterWatch]

We have a flock of eleven ducks. Two rouens, five mallards, and four cayugas. The mallards and cayugas hatched around April 16th. At what point should I be able to tell boys from girls and what should I look for? One of the mallards has much lighter coloring than the others. Do they usually have color variation?

 

[PotterWatch]

This is Cheese, our funky girl (I'm just assuming she's a girl).

 

[PotterWatch]

No one?

 

[steny03]

Male and female mallards have very different coloring. The light brown ducks in your picture are female mallards. Males will have all green heads.

 

[PotterWatch]

At what age do their heads turn green? I know that their adult plumage is very different from each other but I wasn't sure when that difference becomes apparent.

 

[PotterWatch]

Again, these ducks are less than three months old.

 

[cymbaline]

This is Cheese, our funky girl (I'm just assuming she's a girl).

Oh my, she is beautiful! I see what you mean...she looks similar to a mallard, but noticeably different. Maybe there's a little bit of snowy mallard in her? Or possibly welsh harlequin, although the size genes must not have been passed because she looks very small, and WH are bigger ducks. Maybe a bit of call duck then? Regardless, she's lovely; if she ever needs a new home, I'm not far away.

Oh and with regard to the comment about males and females, the one next to the water bowl is a female, and the one at the back is a male. Can't tell about the one digging because I can't see the bill. Male and female mallards feather out the same at first, then the male's bill will turn a yellow-green (about 8-12 weeks or so, something like that), and then a month or two later the male will get his traditional green head & gray body coloring. After about a year the male will molt back into eclipse plumage, which means he'll look about like he does right now - yellow bill and "female" coloring.
Below is my Bullwinkle. First pic is in June of 2013 at about 14-15 months old, just beginning his first molt; second one is 3 months later.


These are my babies from last year. The one in the middle is a male and the other two are female.

I'd say any day now you'll see the green start coming in on the male mallards' heads. I got a kick out of my Dexter because it looked like he had on sparkly green eyeliner and a mohawk, lol.



If you'd like, I can post videos of what each gender sounds like...might help with the cayugas.

Edited to add: I went back and looked through my pics...Rocky and Bullwinkle were born around the bend of March/beginning of April, and by the beginning of June, Rocky's belly was starting to turn gray. Bullwinkle was a few weeks behind though, more like the end of June.

 

[PotterWatch]

Thanks! That's helpful and very interesting. I didn't know that they will molt back to the brown coloring. I'd definitely like to watch the video. Thanks again!

 

[cymbaline]

Here ya go.

That is my little Turkey at about 6 weeks old. Still peeping a little but definitely capable of some QUACKS! She is also the one on the left in my pool pic earlier.

And here is my buff boy at about 3 months. You can hear a girl at the very beginning, and another boy in the background throughout.