Spring is finally moving into summer and the birds are settled in nesting and some are even raising their first brood.
Ducks and other waterfowl are usually the first birds to arrive in Yellowknife after the gulls. There are a lot of different duck species and it takes a bit of time to be able to identify them particularly when they are in flight. I have much more luck identifying the males thanks to their varied colours and patterns. Female ducks are mostly all brown though there are some that are more easily identified than others but you definitely need a practised eye to distinguish them.
One of the first species of ducks most people can readily identify are mallards. Theses large ducks are prevalent across the country and can be found in nearly every marsh in Canada. Drakes have a bright green head that sometimes looks purple in the right light. The females have a white-edged blue patch on their wing and a dark eye-stripe. The oldest known Mallard was a male, and at least 27 years, 7 months old when he was shot in Arkansas in 2008. He had been banded in Louisiana in 1981.
The Northern Shoveler is another large duck common across the prairies and parts of the Great Lakes region. The male has a green head similar to the mallard but has a yellow eye and a black beak instead of a dark eye and a yellow beak like the mallard. It’s beak is very wide compared to the mallard and this feature sort of makes it look as if it has an overbite. The Female Northern Shoveler is a mottled brown with a wide flat orange beak and bright orange legs. When flushed off the nest, a female Northern Shoveler often defecates on its eggs, apparently to deter predators.
Green-winged teals are common across the country as well but are very small in comparison to mallards. The males have a rusty head with a wide green stripe across their eye. The female has a set of iridescent green feathers on her wing that can often be hard to see until she takes flight. The oldest known Green-winged Teal was at least 20 years and 3 months, based on banding data. It was a female banded in 1941 in Oklahoma, and recovered by a hunter 1960 in Missouri.
The last duck species we’ll look at this week is the American Wigeon. The Wigeon is another small duck common across Canada. The male and female Wigeon are mostly greyish-brown with blue-grey beaks. The male widgeon has a white stripe down the top of its head between its eyes and a wide green eye patch similar to the teal. One fact I found really interesting is the oldest American Wigeon reported was at least 21 years and 4 months old!
I hope you enjoyed learning about just a few of the ducks we have around Yellowknife. Look forward to more about ducks in an upcoming post. Thanks for stopping by I appreciate your time.
See you next week!