American Black Duck (1 Viewer)

[arg]

I'm looking for a way to identify juvenile American Black Ducks in the field. Any suggestions?

 

[COZ]

I'm looking for a way to identify juvenile American Black Ducks in the field. Any suggestions?

Darker overall than a mallard. when it comes to telling the differences you may as well pack a lunch, or catch em at rest...you will be there a while.

 

[samuel walker]

As above plus they freely inter-breed with cousin mallard creating a mess of mutts that all flock with purebred mals and blacks .it's a guessing game
Sam

 

[Glen Tepke]

In American Black Duck, the speculum (the colorful patch in the wing) is purple-blue vs. blue or turqouise in Mallard, but this can be hard to judge. More reliably, two sides of the speculum have a black border in ABDU, the borders are black and white in Mallard. Female Mallards can be almost as dark as a female Black, but their tails usually have a pale fringe; the tails of Black Duck are all dark. Glen

Sorry - I just realized your question was juv. Black vs. adult, not Black vs. Mallard. I was thrown off the track by the other responses. In that case, I have no idea; Sibley's illustration of juv. looks identical to the adult. Glen