Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Mandarin duck (male) in eclipse plumage. Many male ducks have bright, colourful plumage, exhibiting strong sexual dimorphism. However, they moult into a dull plumage after breeding in mid-summer. This drab, female-like appearance is called eclipse plumage. When they shed feathers to go into an eclipse, the ducks become flightless for a short ...
Common eiders (Somateria mollissima) in the breeding season on Texel, the Netherlands. The common eider (pronounced / ˈ aɪ. d ər /) (Somateria mollissima), also called St. Cuthbert's duck or Cuddy's duck, is a large (50–71 cm (20–28 in) in body length) sea-duck that is distributed over the northern coasts of Europe, North America and eastern Siberia.
The breeding male is patterned grey, with a black rear end, light chestnut wings, and a brilliant white speculum, obvious in flight or at rest. [12] In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake looks more like the female, but retains the male wing pattern, and is usually greyer above and has less orange on the bill. [11]
This change in plumage also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer moulting period. [36] The adulthood age for mallards is fourteen months, and the average life expectancy is three years, but they can live to twenty. [37]
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 25 November 2024. Species of bird Mandarin duck Temporal range: Pleistocene – Present, 0.8 – 0 Mya PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓ Male and female mandarin ducks at Martin Mere, UK Conservation status Least Concern (IUCN 3.1) Scientific classification Domain: Eukaryota Kingdom: Animalia Phylum ...
This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Anas acuta. [2] The scientific name comes from two Latin words: anas, meaning "duck", and acuta, which comes from the verb acuere, "to sharpen"; the species term like the English name, refers to the pointed tail of the male in breeding plumage. [3]
The red-breasted merganser (Mergus serrator) is a duck species that is native to much of the Northern Hemisphere.The red breast that gives the species its common name is only displayed by males in breeding plumage.
A duckling is a young duck in downy plumage [1] or baby duck, [2] but in the food trade a young domestic duck which has just reached adult size and bulk and its meat is still fully tender, is sometimes labelled as a duckling. A male is called a drake and the female is called a duck, or in ornithology a hen. [3] [4] Male mallard. Wood ducks.