Sexing mallard juveniles

[WampusCat]

I have six mallards that I got as ducklings about 6-7 weeks ago. Theyre starting to really feather out now and I noticed today that four of them have the faintest green tint to their heads in the sunlight. If I had to wager a guess Id say I had four males and two females. But I want other opinions. Their voices havent changed enough yet that I can tell who's quacking and who isnt.

 

[Speceider]

Don't rely on the tint....if their wings are feathering out look at the tertial coverts, white edged are females and no white edging males.

Clint

 

[Kevin565]

If they haven't changed by now you could have all of one sex. By that age I could sex all of my mallards by their call

 

[WampusCat]

Ive seen this website, but I cant make heads or tails of it. The wings all look the same to me.

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/duckplum/mallard.htm

Can someone circle the wing area Im supposed to be looking at?

 

[hdowden]

Ive seen this website, but I cant make heads or tails of it. The wings all look the same to me.

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/duckplum/mallard.htm

Can someone circle the wing area Im supposed to be looking at?

x2 i cant see a difference in them at all :-( mine have quakes that are close but not the same but i want other ways to tell them apart. to me they seem to have slightly different coloration but im sure thats just me right now they are around 6 weeks old

 

[GoingQuackers]

My mallards are 9 weeks old now. Take a look of this pic from a few weeks ago. The female is on the left and the male is on the right. Pay close attention to the long feathers at the end of the wing. Notice the lightening on the male? Keep watching and see if any of yours do the same thing soon. A few days after I noticed the color change, their raspy boy-quack became evident.

 

[Missy60]

My mallards are 9 weeks old now. Take a look of this pic from a few weeks ago. The female is on the left and the male is on the right. Pay close attention to the long feathers at the end of the wing. Notice the lightening on the male? Keep watching and see if any of yours do the same thing soon. A few days after I noticed the color change, their raspy boy-quack became evident.

This is a great picture of the differences in the wings. It makes total sense to me now

 

[GoingQuackers]

Glad that this pic helps! And size will become a dead giveaway too. You can see the size difference in the picture too. Males are almost always going to be your biggest of the flock. Given the age of your birds, you should definitely be able to determine sex soon. All the clues will start adding up.

 

[nessajean]

This is a great picture of the differences in the wings. It makes total sense to me now

so male or female

 

[nessajean]

so male or female