Things You'll Need:
- to know your colors
- to know your bird body parts
-
Step 1
The Male Mallard is quite easy to identify. There are only a handful of duck species where the male has a green head. With the male mallard, the head and most of the neck is a beautiful shade of emerald green. It can be irridescant in some light, looking blue or even purple at times, but will have an overall dark green look to it..
-
Step 2
Another way to identify a male mallard is by the bill color. Though it can range anywhere from an olive green to an almost orange, combine that with the green head, and it's a dead giveaway.
-
Step 3
There will be a white ring at the base of the neck seperating the green head from the rust colored breast. Mallards readily interbreed with other ducks and have many domesticated varieties with very similar coloring, but a true full-bred mallard will have this white collar around the neck.
-
Step 4
Look for a chesnut, rust, maroon colored breast (chest portion). Also the sides and back of the duck will be a gray/white color (again, depending on the specimen)
-
Step 5
If you are lucky enough to see the wings, a male mallard will have a deep blue "speculum" this is part of the wind that is right in the middle of the wing itself: not the long "fingertips" part. It will be a square portion bordered on two sides by white bars. See the picture for an example.
-
Step 6
And finally, another giveaway that you are looking at a male mallard is the bright orange feet.
