Where are all the male ducks?

[Chainsaw Mage]

So my daughter, who is 3, loves ducks, and thus I take her on a daily basis to this beautiful pond near our house. On any given day there are at least 25 ducks there, often more (we once counted over 80 ).

But with one strange caveat: I don't recall seeing a single male duck all summer. You know, males ducks = shiny green head kind of thing. Just tons and tons of (presumably sexually frustrated) females.

Does anyone know why this is? I'm actually genuinely puzzled.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Well, it depends on the type of ducks in your pond - you may be trying to correctly identify the incorrect ducks. Mallards indeed have the green head and bright plumage of the "typical" male fowl, however, there are species that have much more subtle markings and have only blue "wing-slashes" to differentiate.

I suggest getting a water-fowl identification guide and see if that doesn’t clear-up the problem of the missing males.

 

[Ilium]

Are you sure they're mallards? There are lots of kinds of ducks but only mallards have the spiffy green heads (as far as I know).

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Do the ducks there have light brown feathers with darker markings throughout? If so, they're probably female mallards (wild or domesticated). If the ducks are all white (the Pekin duck), look at the tail feathers. Male ducks have a few tail feathers that curl up.

Grew up on a farm. This stuff stays with ya.

 

[trancejeremy]

Hmmmm, that is weird - it's not even the start of football season yet (next week).

 

[ph34r]

I think we all know what happens when a large group of sexually frustrated females get together.

 

[Fishbone]

Erotic pillowfights?
Warning: Do not read further if you don't want to read a potentially humorous story about duck sex.
I've had the exact opposite happen to me. At Luther Prep, the boarding school I went to, every duck it seemed was a guy one year. Total sausage fest. But then the ladies would come and it would get real freaky.Freaky as in jump up on the large full panel cafeteria windows and gangbang midflight. God, that was always good for a laugh!
"Leave 'em alone tutor! They're married!"
"Man, ducks are huge."

 

[Harmon]

Did you look around the edges of the duck pond? Most males see a bunch of females and get really shy.

 

[Raylis]

Did you look around the edges of the duck pond? Most males see a bunch of females and get really shy.

That doesn't just apply to ducks

 

[Meds]

The Guy Ducks are Camouflaged

You have an observant 3-year-old! From around June until about September, male Mallards look very similar to females -- they're in what's called eclipse plumage.

They moult their feathers and get much drabber -- better camouflage until their flight feathers have all grown back. They don't need the bright feathers so much because breeding season is over.

Even in eclipse, the guys still have yellow beaks, whereas the girls still have orange beaks.

http://www.geocities.com/tgrey41/Pages/Mallardp.html