What Kind of Duck Is Dark Brown as a Baby

What kinds of ducks can y'all notice in Washington?

Who doesn't honey ducks? Head to almost any water habitat, and you lot are probable to see at least a few pond around.

I think you'll be amazed at how many duck species are plant in Washington!

For people who are but ever used to seeing the common Mallard, this list should be incredibly eye-opening! The ducks featured below are most common and virtually likely to be observed . In reality, the consummate list of ducks that may exist seen in Washington is even larger!

Here is how the rest of this article is organized: (Click the link to jump to that section!)

• Dabbling Ducks (#1 – #ix)

Dabblers are those ducks that feed by sticking their head underwater and leaving their tails pointing up as they graze on the various greens and invertebrates in the shallows. However, that is not the just style that they consume. As wintertime ends and the snows start to cook, they will consume seeds and the leftover waste grain found in farm fields.

• Diving/Body of water Ducks (#10 – #21)

Diving ducks completely submerge themselves underwater to catch aquatic vegetation from the bottom or chase food, such as fish or invertebrates. They have adapted narrower, pointier, and overall smaller wings, which are perfect for swimming underwater. Consequently, these ducks typically lack the ability to simply accept off from the surface like the dabblers and it's mutual to see them running forth the surface to build upwardly enough speed to get airborne.

To learn more well-nigh other h2o birds nearly you, cheque out these guides!

• The 9 Types of Geese & Swans That Alive in Washington!

• The six Types of Herons Institute in Washington!

The 21 MOST Common Ducks Found in Washington:

• The range maps beneath were generously shared with permission from The Birds of The World, published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I utilize their site Often to learn new information well-nigh birds!

---

Dabbling Ducks

---

#ane. Mallard

How to identify:

• Males have a bright green head, sparse white collar, dark cherry-red-dark-brown chest, yellow neb, and a black rump with a white-tipped tail.
• Females are mottled dark-brown with orange and brown bills.
• Both sexes accept regal-blue secondary feathers on their fly, which is most visible when they are continuing or flying.

My approximate is that almost everyone is familiar with the Mallard. These ducks are definitely the nearly mutual species in Washington!

Mallard Range Map

Mallards are extremely comfortable effectually people, which is why these adaptable ducks are so widespread. They are constitute in almost whatsoever wetland habitat, no matter where information technology's located. We even find Mallards in our swimming pool every summertime and have to chase them away, then they don't make a mess on our deck! 🙂

Yous may even be able to run across a Mallard correct now on the LIVE beast cams in my lawn! Watch Now!

Mallards readily take artificial structures built for them by humans. If you have a nice pond or a marsh, feel free to put upward a bootleg nesting expanse to enjoy some adorable ducklings walking around your property! Simply brand certain you put upward predator guards so predators can't get to the eggs.

When y'all think of a duck quacking, information technology is almost inevitably a female Mallard . If in that location is a improve duck sound, we haven't heard it!

Interestingly, males do not quack like females only instead make a raspy call.

---

#two. American Wigeon

How to identify:

• Compact ducks with round heads. Blueish-gray bills that are tipped in black.
• Males are mostly brown merely accept a distinctive green band behind their eyes and a white crown.
• Females have brown bodies overall, with a grayer-colored head.

American Wigeons are numerous, but they prefer quiet lakes and marshes away from people. Their nutrition consists of a college proportion of plant matter than other ducks and will even get to farm fields to feed, similar to geese. Their brusque bill provides a lot of power to help pluck vegetation with ease!

• RELATED: Types of Geese and Swans in Northward America! (10 species)

American Wigeon Range Map

Since they tin scare hands when approached, one of the all-time ways to see these ducks in Washington is to listen for them! Males give a three-part nasal whistle (whew-whew-whew) at any time of the year, which sort of sounds like a kazoo (heard below)! Females don't whistle, but they do produce a harsh grunt quack .

---

#3. Gadwall

How to place:

• Males take an intricate pattern of gray, brownish, and black feathers, which wait like white-fringed "scales." Brownish head and dark grey or black bill. The back is covered with medium and dark dark-brown feathers. Males have a dark bill.
• Females are mottled shades of brown with a night orangish-black bill. Look like to female Mallards.
• Both sexes have a white patch (much smaller on females) on their wings, visible when flying.

Gadwalls are like shooting fish in a barrel ducks to overlook in Washington! Unlike about other species, males don't sport whatever patches of blue, dark-green, or white feather. Look for them in small ponds that take lots of vegetation.

Gadwall Range Map

Gadwalls have a funny habit of stealing food from diving ducks upon surfacing, with American Coots being their favorite victim! This behavior is seen more often in the summer, where animal matter tin can brand up to 50% of their nutrition, whereas it drops to around five% in winter. Submerged aquatic vegetation is their primary food source.

If you hear someone burping and you're most water, and then information technology may exist a male person Gadwall. Their short, reedy calls are frequently described as "burps."

Females quack and sound similar to Mallards, except it's only a fleck more high pitched.

---

#4. Northern Pintail

How to identify:

• Slender ducks with long tails and necks and a stake black-gray bill.
• Males have a cinnamon-brown head, gray bodies, and a white pharynx and breast.
• Females take plain, tan heads and rufous-brownish plumage on their bodies.

Northern Pintails have a long neck that exaggerates their extremely pointy tail (hence the proper name) when in flight. Even when floating on water, its tail sticks out further from its trunk than its caput. Non-breeding males and all females accept shorter but all the same prominent pintails.

Northern Pintail Range Map

The best place to find these ducks in Washington is wetland habitat away from people. Wildlife refuges are perfect places to start. They tend to stick to shallower areas near the edges of lakes and ponds. Interestingly, they are as well proficient at walking on country, and so you'll find them cleaning subcontract fields of barley, wheat, rice, and corn leftovers.

Males have a unique call, which sounds a bit similar a train whistle. Females utter low-pitched quacking "kuk" notes.

Northern Pintails merely migrate at night and are incredible flyers! During migration, they achieve speeds upwardly to 48 mph (77 kph), and the record for longest non-stop flight is 1,800 miles (2,900 km)!

---

#5. Northern Shoveler

How to identify:

• Males have reddish-brown flanks, green heads, a white chest, black backs, and yellow optics.
• Females are brown, and sometimes you can see a bluish shoulder patch.
• Both sexes have distinctive bills, which are large and broad!

If you lot only glance at the green head, casual observers in Washington might accidentally recall these ducks are Mallards. But one look upwards shut, and you should notice the ENORMOUS spoon-shaped bill, which is what Northern Shovelers are known for, and how they got their proper name.

Northern Shoveler Range Map

They use their large neb to shovel and sift through mud and sand to find tasty tidbits like crustaceans, mollusks, aquatic insects that are buried. Interestingly, their pecker has over 100 tiny projections on the edges called lamellae that assistance filter out the food they desire to eat.

Males brand a guttural "took-took" audio during courtship, when alarmed, and in flight. Females brand a nasally sounding dishonest.

An interesting behavior observed with Northern Shovelers is their ability to "squad up" to find nutrient. Flocks of them will sometimes swim in circles together to help stir up food!

---

#6. Blue-winged Teal

How to identify:

• Males have a caput this is bluish with a white band in front of the centre. Black bill and blackness wings. Torso is brown with black spots.
• Females have chocolate-brown bodies. Wait for a night eyeline and crown on their caput.

Blue-winged Teals are found in shallow wetlands across Washington. These ducks get their name considering of the beautiful blueish shoulder patch that is only visible while in flight! Just as pretty is the green plumage below the bluish on the wing.

Blueish-winged Teal Range Map

Believe it or not, these beautiful waterfowl are the second most abundant duck in North America, backside only (you guessed it) the Mallard. Blue-winged Teal are a popular species for hunters, although the number of ducks that can be taken per year is monitored closely to ensure the population stays strong.

Males produce a high whistled "tsee-tsee."

---

#7. Green-winged Teal

How to identify:

• Males have anecdote-brown heads and a green ear patch. Cute grayness-barred bodies with vertical white stripes on each side.
• Females accept a dark centre-line and are mottled brown throughout.
• Both sexes have a green patch on their wing, which is visible in flight and most of the time when resting.

Green-winged Teals are the smallest dabbling ducks yous will observe in Washington. They are only 12-15 inches (31-39 cm) in length and weigh between 5 and eighteen ounces (140-500 chiliad).

Greenish-winged Teal Range Map

These birds often travel and hang out with other species. Look closely for the smallest duck in a mixed flock, and there is a good risk it's a Green-winged Teal. Even females, which look similar to female Mallards, should stand out because they are noticeably smaller!

• RELATED: The MOST Common Birds You May Run into in Your Lawn! (27 species)

Green-winged Teal populations have increased in Washington through the years, even though they are the second most hunted duck in the country. Luckily, since they breed in the very northern parts of North America, their breeding range hasn't suffered the same habitat loss that other species have encountered.

Males give a short, articulate, repeated whistle, which is a unique sound for a duck if you inquire me! Females often give a series of quacks at any time of the year.

---

#8. Forest Duck

How to identify:

• Males have very intricate plumage. Look for the dark-green crested head, carmine eyes, and chestnut breast with white flecks.
• Females have brown bodies with a grayish caput, which is also slightly crested. White teardrop heart patch and a blue patch on the wing.

Walt Disney used to say that "the world is a carousel of color," and few waterfowl take taken this more to heart than the male Wood Duck. In fact, it looks like an artist used every color to paint a duck that has green, scarlet, orange, lime, yellow, buff, rose, brown, tan, black, white, gray, regal, and blueish coloring.

Forest Duck Range Map

This is one of the few duck species in Washington you may see in a tree! Wood Ducks use abandoned tree cavities for nesting, but they also readily have to elevated nesting boxes.

When hatchlings get out the nest for the first time, they oft have to make a behemothic jump of faith (up to fifty feet) to the ground beneath! You accept to scout the video below to believe it. 🙂

Interestingly, Wood Ducks are perfectly evolved for their life spent in trees. Their claws are powerful, which allows them to perch and grasp onto branches!

The nearly mutual audio heard from Wood Ducks is when they are disturbed. I've frequently accidentally come upon them only to hear them flying abroad proverb "ooeek-ooeek" loudly!

---

#ix. Cinnamon Teal

How to identify:

• Breeding males have a cinnamon-colored body with a thick, long blackness bill. Look for their carmine eyes!
• Females are mottled brown overall, blackness optics, and large black bills.
• While in flying, males show beautiful blue and greenish patches on their wings.

Cinnamon Teals nest and are most abundant in large, permanent wetlands in Washington. They are most often seen at the edges of reeds and other vegetation that provides embrace.

Cinnamon Teal Range Map

While their population is nonetheless healthy, it has slowly been failing over the past l+ years. Much of their habitat has been lost every bit wetlands have been converted to agronomics or other types of development. And what remains is oftentimes contaminated and polluted, which Cinnamon Teals are sensitive towards.

Males give a low-pitched rattling "karr, karr, karr," which sounds a scrap like someone trying to unsuccessfully start a chain saw.

The Females are great moms and highly protective of their hatchlings. If threatened, she will pretend to have a broken fly to try and describe the predators away!

---

Diving/Sea Ducks

---

#x. Bufflehead

How to identify:

• Pocket-size ducks with large heads.
• Males have white chests and flanks and a large white patch on their heads. Night back. Irised purple-green feather on their face.
• Females are more often than not chocolate-brown with a darker head. Wait for the distinctive white cheek patch.

Information technology's hard to misidentify these striking ducks when seen in Washington. They spend up to half their time foraging underwater, looking for aquatic invertebrates and crustaceans, which they eat while still submerged. When they dive, be patient and go on scanning effectually the area for these small-scale birds to resurface.

Bufflehead Range Map

Buffleheads are picky nesters, and they will ONLY lay eggs within of a cavity. They almost exclusively use holes that were excavated past Northern Flickers, and on occasion, Pileated Woodpeckers. They are losing nest sites due to logging, merely they do have readily to properly installed nest boxes.

• RELATED: 5 Woodpecker Feeders Your Birds Volition Honey!

Overall, Buffleheads are more silent than other ducks. In tardily winter to early spring, information technology'due south possible to hear the males make a squeaky whistle.

---

#11. Canvasback

How to identify:

• A relatively large diving duck with a black breast, blackness tail, and a stake gray body. Their heads are wedge-shaped and slope down to their long, night neb.
• Males take red-brown heads and red eyes.
• Females are duller overall, with a brownish head and black optics.

Canvasbacks are large diving ducks that rarely ever go to dry out land. In fact, they even sleep while floating and build their nests in masses of floating vegetation!

Canvasback Range Map

These ducks are omnivores that eat everything from insects and mussels to establish tubers and seeds. They tin dive upwards to vii feet deep, looking for aquatic vegetation, which they rip off with their strong bills.

These mostly silent ducks have had their populations fluctuate over the last 100 years. Loss of massive amounts of wetland habitat to development caused a decline in numbers, forth with the loss of their primary food source (wild celery) disappearing in many places. But overall, their population has remained steady since the 1980s.

---

#12. Ruddy Duck

How to place:

• Breeding males are blueish-billed, white-cheeked, with a black cap and dorsum of the neck, leading downwards to its chestnut-colored torso. Stiff black tail is typically cock.
• Females are tawny soft brown, except the darker cap. Females (and nonbreeding males) accept a black, scoop-like bill.

Ruddy Ducks are 1 of the most interesting ducks found in Washington!

First, the males that are in their breeding plumage are unmistakable and look like no other duck. It'southward hard to miss their vivid blueish bills and extremely thick necks.

Ruby-red Duck Range Map

Males also have a unique mode of alluring females. They will shell their bill against their neck so difficult that it forces air through the feathers, which creates a swirl of bubbling in the water, which I judge the girls find attractive? To terminate off this display, they emit a discharge-like sound!

Ruddy Ducks are much ameliorate swimmers than flyers. When they feel threatened by a predator, they much prefer to swoop and swim away than taking to the air.

---

#13. Redhead

How to place:

• Both sexes have a steep forehead leading down to their blackness-tipped gray nib.
• Males have a distinctive cinnamon-red head with yellow eyes. Gray torso and black chest.
• Females are dark-brown overall with a paler face. Has dark eyes.

In Washington, Redheads are among the more than sociable ducks yous will find, peculiarly in winter. It's common to see them gathered together in enormous flocks, sometimes thousands stiff, in relatively large lakes. Because of their gregarious nature, they are easily drawn to decoys, making them a pop game species for hunters.

Redhead Range Map

Interestingly, female Redheads practice a flake of brood parasitism , which means they will lay some of their eggs in the nests of other duck species and permit them raise those hatchlings! Their favorite species to target include Mallard, Canvasback, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Ruddy Duck, and American Wigeon. What'south interesting is that they also build their own nests and raise these hatchlings themselves. Talk about playing the odds!

Males make a cat-like "whee-uogh" or "keyair" telephone call when trying to court a female. When threatening another Redhead, the males also emit a depression, trilling "rrrrr."

---

#xiv. Band-necked Duck

How to place:

• Medium-sized duck with a peaked head. Both sexes have a greyness beak with a white band and a black tip.
• Males accept a glossy black head, breast, and back with grey sides. Yellow eyes.
• Females are brownish birds with a grayness face and pharynx. Look for a bit of white around and behind their dark eyes.

In truth, the Band-necked Duck has a terrible name for identification purposes. You would retrieve at that place would be an obvious ring around their neck, but yous would be mistaken! The so-called ring on their black necks is such a pale brown that it's virtually impossible to spot from any distance.

Band-necked Duck Range Map

Unlike most other diving ducks, these birds tend to inhabit and visit SHALLOW ponds and wetlands in Washington. During the breeding flavour, you will unremarkably only find two of them together, but in winter, they gather in flocks that number into the thousands of birds!

They are one of the nearly likely ducks to swallow leftover shotgun pellets, making them susceptible to lead poisoning. Lead shot was banned in 1991, which has helped their population numbers, merely some old ammo still remains in wetlands across Washington.

---

#fifteen. Common Goldeneye

How to identify:

• Males take a dark green head, a bright yellow eye, and a distinctive white cheek patch. The trunk is mostly white with a black back and rump.
• Females take a chocolate-brown caput, a curt dark bill with a yellow tip at the end, and a pale yellow eye. Look for their white neck collar and grayish bodies.

Common Goldeneyes are adept diving ducks in Washington. These birds can stay underwater for upwardly to a minute in length equally they search for their prey, which includes aquatic invertebrates, fish, and fish eggs, along with seeds and tubers from submerged vegetation.

Common Goldeneye Range Map

Luckily, their population has remained potent and stable. One of their biggest threats is that they are crenel nesters and rely upon forestry practices that don't cut down dead trees. Many dedicated people have put up next boxes in their breeding range to help provide more acceptable nesting spots.

Hunters ordinarily refer to the Common Goldeneye equally the "whistler" because of the distinctive whistling noises their wings make when flying. Both males and females are generally silent ducks except during courtship.

---

#16. Hooded Merganser

How to identify:

• Small duck with a long, slender bill.
• Breeding males accept an unmistakable large blackness crest that has a big white patch on each side. Yellow optics.
• Females have dark eyes and are brown overall with a slightly lighter colored crest, which well-nigh looks like a mohawk. Nonbreeding males expect similar to females, except they have yellow eyes.

Appearance-wise, Hooded Merganser's are one of my favorite birds. Seeing a breeding male person with its large black and white crest erected is a beautiful sight. Look for these ducks in shallow ponds and rivers in summer, while in winter, they motility to unfrozen lakes or bays.

Hooded Merganser Range Map

Their long, sparse bill is serrated, which helps them grab small fish, crayfish, and aquatic insects. Their food is almost always swallowed whole, regardless of size. They chase underwater by sight and have vision adaptations that permit them to see quite clearly when submerged.

Females have an interesting behavior where they may lay some of their eggs in the nests of other Hooded Mergansers. While each bird tin lay up to a dozen eggs, nests have been found with more twoscore eggs in them, making i duck work a lot harder than several others.

---

#17. Scarlet-breasted Merganser

How to identify:

• Slim ducks with long bodies and necks and a long, thin bill.
• Breeding males have a dark green caput with a spiky-looking crest. Cinnamon-colored breast and red eyes.
• Females and non-breeding males are greyish brownish overall.

Red-breasted Mergansers breed in boreal forests across much of North America, where they can be found on many inland lakes. During winter, these sea ducks migrate south and spend near of their fourth dimension just off the declension, although it's possible to discover them in just about any large, unfrozen torso of water.

Red-breasted Merganser Range Map

Fish are their primary food source, and they demand to consume roughly 15-xx per solar day to supply their energy demands. To catch this amount of fish, it's estimated they demand to make nigh 250 dives per 24-hour interval! Sometimes they will help each other out, and individuals will work together to herd minnows to shallower water, which makes the fish easier to catch.

Did you know that birds that primarily swallow fish typically sense of taste horrible? Because of this fact, Red-breasted Mergansers, and the other merganser species constitute in Washington, are not usually hunted. It's also the reason y'all don't find anyone trying to swallow a penguin!

• RELATED: 26 Penguin Facts That Will Make You Waddle With Joy!

---

#xviii. Mutual Merganser

How to identify:

• A adequately large duck that has a long, slender orange bill with a black tip and night eyes.
• Breeding males have a largely white body, a black back, and a mallard-like dark-green head.
• Females and not-convenance males sport a cinnamon-colored caput and a grayish-white torso.

Due to their sparse bill, Common Mergansers stand out adequately easily from most other ducks in Washington. Their favorite nutrient is fish, which they catch with the help of their serrated bill, only they too indulge in aquatic invertebrates such as crustaceans, mollusks, insects, and worms.

Mutual Merganser Range Map

Common Mergansers are and so good at fishing that many other ducks try to steal from them when they surface. In fact, information technology'southward common to meet flocks of seagulls following them, hoping to snatch an like shooting fish in a barrel meal. Even Bald Eagles have been known to rob them of their difficult-earned fish!

Naturally, these ducks nest in tree cavities that woodpeckers take carved out. Interestingly, newborn ducklings are only well-nigh a twenty-four hour period onetime when they leap from the entrance to the ground, at which betoken the female parent will lead them to h2o, and they catch all their own food immediately.

---

#19. Lesser Scaup

How to place:

• Males have xanthous eyes, a sleeky black caput, and a chest and rump that contrasts with the speckled greyness back and white sides.
• Females are nighttime brown overall with an even darker head. Await for a bright white patch around the base of the bill.

Lesser Scaups are the near arable diving duck in North America. With that beingness said, information technology may not be easy to see 1 in Washington! They are mostly found in big lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries, where they can gather by the thousands. In wintertime, they assemble closely by the thousands, and from afar, it looks similar a large mass of floating vegetation.

Bottom Scaup Range Map

Lesser Scaups and Greater Scaups expect incredibly similar. The best fashion to tell them apart is to look at their head. Lesser Scaups have a more tall peaked head, where Greaters have a more rounded head.

These ducks are generally silent, and information technology'due south rare to hear them. Females are a bit more vocal than males and make a variety of guttural scolding barks and grunts.

---

#20. Greater Scaup

How to identify:

• Males have xanthous eyes, a dark-green head, a dark chest, and a rump that contrasts with the speckled gray back and white sides.
• Females have a chocolatey-chocolate-brown head and warm brown body. Look for a bright white patch around the base of the nib.
• Both sexes have big blueish-gray bills with a black tip.

If you lot get a hazard to run into a Greater Scaup in Washington, please know that you lot are watching a duck that spends its summers breeding extremely far north in the chill. Some individuals fifty-fifty go across the north pole into Europe!

Greater Scaup Range Map

These birds are nearly always seen in big bodies of h2o, where they congregate in large numbers with other Greater Scaups. They wait practically identical to Bottom Scaups, and it will take some practice to tell the difference betwixt the two species.

Greater Scaups are splendid diving ducks, and they regularly get down 20+ anxiety to find aquatic vegetation or invertebrates to eat. These ducks are mostly silent, except during breeding flavour, where you may hear males give a soft, nasally whistle.

---

#21. Harlequin Duck

How to identify:

• Pocket-size duck with a brusque dark gray beak.
• Breeding males have a dark blueish trunk with rust-brown patches on their sides. Assuming white spots on their neck and body and a white facial crescent.
• Females have chocolate-brown bodies that are paler below. White spots behind the pecker and eyes.

Harlequin Ducks might be the most scenic duck you will find in Washington. First, the coloration on convenance males is spectacular, and it looks like they were painted with beautiful blues, chestnuts, and whites.

Harlequin Duck Range Map

But the nigh interesting thing almost this species is the farthermost places where they choose to live. They breed and heighten their young mainly alongside fast-moving rivers. In winter, they motion to rocky bounding main shores that receive lots of wind and large waves.

10-rays of Harlequin Ducks testify the punishment their bodies take as they get tossed around in these extreme locations. Almost every individual has multiple healed fractures that they alive with!

Dissimilar many other sea ducks, they are quite vocal. But the funny thing is they make a very un-duck-like noise, which sounds more like a squeaking mouse than your typical dishonest. This unusual dissonance has led to their nickname, "Sea Mouse."

---

Help! I saw a duck that doesn't match any on this list!

Here are some possible explanations if you saw a duck in Washington that doesn't seem to match whatsoever of the species above.

It was a domestic duck or hybrid.

• There are an incredible amount of ducks that are considered farm or domestic ducks. Ane pop example is the Pekin Duck, which has completely white plumage. Unfortunately, many of them escape and are introduced into wild populations. These individuals also unremarkably brood with other native species, specifically Mallards, which create hybrids that are impossible to place.

You lot saw a rare or accidental species.

• The ducks above are the well-nigh common species you lot may observe in Washington, but information technology isn't all-inclusive. Because of the migratory nature of ducks, they can turn up in all sorts of unique and new areas!

It was an escapee from someone's personal zoo.

• Many people have private collections of exotic animals from around the world. Ducks with fancy plumage are often pop additions until they escape and end upward at your local pond or marsh.

---

Do you need additional aid identifying ducks yous have seen?

If so, one of these field guides should be able to assistance you!

• Comprehensive Guide to Waterfowl Species

---

Which of these ducks have y'all seen before in Washington?

Leave a annotate below!

What Kind of Duck Is Dark Brown as a Baby

Source: https://birdwatchinghq.com/ducks-in-washington/

Share this post