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Female or 1st Summer Male ,please (1 Viewer)

christineredgate

Winner of the Copeland Wildlife Photographer of th
Took this picture this morning and when checking the ID of the duck,noticed in the photo perhaps the feathers on the top of the wings look darker than those of the female.So could this bird be a first Summer Male,or is it a Female please.
Thankyou,Christine.
 
1st Summer Male or Female ?

Yes,Bluetail,I got into a bit of a pickle.I posted the message and then realised I had forgotten the pic,so went to edit,then attachment,but everything then went onto hold for at least 15mins,and I could only delete half the thread ,so could not even start from scratch:h?: .Anyway,when checking the Id for this duck,Red Breasted Merganser,I noticed that the pics of the first summer male looked very similiar to my pic,albeit the wing feathers at the top had the faint black markings,but this bird was sat on the mound of grass in the water whils't her?his mate swam around in the river,and he did look like a male.
Anway ,hopefully this time here is the pic,if not i did submit it to the gallery yesterday,but did not say which sex.
Thanks,Christine.
 

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It is showing some dark male-plumage mottling on the breast, so it's definitely a male. The limited amount of white on the wing coverts suggests it is an immature male, rather than an adult male starting to come out of eclipse.

Michael
 
Thanks,Michael,if that's so ,then I think I can award myself 3 Brownie points for observation.6 mths ago I would not have noticed the difference.
Thankyou ,Michael.
Christine.
 
christineredgat said:
Thanks,Michael,if that's so ,then I think I can award myself 3 Brownie points for observation.6 mths ago I would not have noticed the difference.
Thankyou ,Michael.
Christine.
thanks for sharing that one Christine, especially as Mr F confirms that I'm right!!
Quite surprises you doesn't it when you realise the iding skills are improving.
 
Thanks,Pete,its good to know that occasionally one may get it at least partly right.Makes up for all the other 1000 and one times!!
Christine.
 
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