Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


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Duck Identification Guide
for Hunters

This pictorial aid is designed to assist in recognizing ducks in the hand after they have been bagged.

The shape of the bill, wing markings, color of feet or head crest are some of the typical characteristics used to identify ducks in the hand. This is quite different from identification of ducks in flight or sitting on water. When flying or on water other identifying features are used such as silhouettes, mannerisms of light, wing beat, speed of flight or color patterns on body and wings. Every effort should be made to learn to recognize ducks before they are shot. By doing this the hunter is able to take much greater advantage of his sport.

This resource is based on the following source:

Duck identification guide for hunters.  No year.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
     Washington, D.C.  1pp.

This resource should be cited as:

Duck identification guide for hunters.  No year.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
     Washington, D.C.  Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Online.
     http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/idguide/index.htm (Version 18SEP97).

Does your duck have:

Note

The following ducks are not listed in this guide:

Greater Scaup
Barrow's Goldeneye
Cinnamon Teal
Mottled Duck
White-Winged Scoter
Surf Scoter
Oldsquaw
Common Eider

Please see these other identification resources found on our web site for further detailed information:

Waterfowl Identification in the Central Flyway
Ducks at a Distance A Waterfowl Identification Guide
Species, Age and Sex Identification of Ducks Using Wing Plumage

Downloading Instructions -- Instructions on downloading and extracting files from this site.

idguide.zip (1.1M) -- Duck Identification Guide for Hunters Installation: Extract all files and open index.htm in a web browser.

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/idguide/index.htm
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Page Last Modified: Thursday, 24-Aug-2006 09:34:18 EDT
Reston, VA [vaww55]