Is this accurate? - Sexing a duck by leg color

[1duckychick]

Someone told me that you can tell the sex of a duckling by the color of their legs (depending upon the breed) - specifically mallards. They said that males have the orange legs while females remain black. I had never heard of this before and it sounded nuts to me. Then I went out and checked my grown ducks as well as some of the wild ones at a pond near by. The females all had black legs and the males were orange. Of course, this was just a small sample of ducks and in no way backs up the hypothesis - I just found it interesting enough to pose the question here among those with more expertise than me.

So, anyone ever hear this theory and/or know whether or not it's true?

 

[1lpoock]

All the pictures I see, the male and female mallard both have orange legs

... Plus the babies have black legs so you won't be able to tell them apart. I think this is just a myth.

 

[nettie]

i have heard that black swedish ducklings have different colored legs. Supposedly boys will have orange or pink in their legs/bill while girls will have all black... but i couldn't verify that. I read it somewhere on the internet a long time ago.

 

[Duck mom 2023]

I have 4 runners from the same clutch the 3 for sure females have black legs (they are also all black or grey) their bills are all different so thats a dead end but then theres the little one, this one is white with orange legs. This ones bill is also orange but has some green spots and is pretty identical to one of the girls...