How to Identify a Mandarin Duck

The beautiful feathered mandarin duck (Aix galericulata) is easy to tell apart from other ducks, once you know what to look for.

Method 1
Method 1 of 2:

By Appearance

  1. Image titled Identify a Mandarin Duck Step 1
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    Learn to tell the difference between a male and a female mandarin duck. Male mandarin ducks are colourful to attract females, but the females are speckled white near their undersides with a stripe going across their neck.
    • Female mandarin ducks are hard to identify when there are large amounts of other duck species, so look out for a female with a male instead.
    • Young female mandarin ducks look like large chicks, and young males look long necked like a grebe, with a mostly brown body with a few flecks of green and blue.
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    Observe the most distinctive colourings of males and females.[1] On males, look out for the white patch around their eye and a crest of green or purple on the top of their heads. On females, look out for the white neck stripe and the brown and white speckled area near their undersides.[2]
    • In summer, the male looses all of his colour except a triangle of green near the tail and his beak colour. He then resembles the female duck.[3]
    • The female duck will not change colour at all, unlike the male.
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    Look out for a 'ramp-shaped' bill with a flat bottom. Unlike many other birds, the ramp shape ends in a sharp yellow point. If you look closely, you will see that it curves down slightly at the end.
    • The bill will either be coloured brown or bright red. A male's bill is bright red and a female's bill is brown.
    • The bill looks a little like an albatross's, but it is thinner and less curved with a smaller sharp tip at the bottom.
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    Look out for a medium-sized bird with a slight 'slouch' where their neck meets their body. They are generally about 41-49 cm (16.14-19.29 inches) tall[4] , which is about 10 cm smaller than most other duck species.
    • Note that the female has a slightly longer and more distinguishable s shaped neck, unlike the male's, which is hidden by feathers.
    • The baby mandarin ducks are like chicks; they hardly have a neck at all, but if you look closely, you can see a slight s shape like the adult female's.
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    5
    Learn to tell the difference between a male mandarin duck and a wood duck. The wood duck has an orange eye, and the male mandarin duck has a black eye. The wood duck does not have the same 'patchwork quilt' pattern on its feathers, and their heads are completely green, unlike the colourful head of a male mandarin duck.[5]
    • Sometimes the wood duck will have a fleck of white on its head, but the male mandarin duck can still be separated from a wood duck by looking at the colourful head.
    • A female mandarin duck and female wood duck can easily be determined from each other. The female wood duck has a small fleck of purple which the female mandarin duck does not have, and the patch around the eye is a circle of white instead of a stripe.
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    Spot the shapes of colour on a male mandarin duck. On the body, the different colours are in triangles and stripes, rather than random shapes or rectangles like other duck species. This is an easy way a male can avoid being mistaken for another duck species such as a wood duck.
    • This excludes the tail feather colours, which are in long triangles that are green or white.
    • Some of the feathers overlap. Do not mistake these bumpy bits for circular shapes of one colour.
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    7
    Look out for the 'sails' that mandarin ducks have. They are two big circular shaped feathers that you can find on mandarin ducks. They stick up slightly like a boat sail, which is why people sometimes call them 'sails.'[6]
    • These are 3/4 of the way along their bodies on male mandarin ducks, and absent on female mandarin ducks.
    • The 'sail' feathers are coloured peach, brown or orange on male mandarin ducks, and sometimes they have a little white stripe at the top.
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Method 2
Method 2 of 2:

By Sound

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    Listen for the mandarin duck's calls. The male mandarin duck will make a shrill, high pitched alarm-like call, but the females will make a low cackling call.[7]
    • These calls are usually made while the mandarin duck is in flight to alert the other mandarin duck that there is danger close by.
    • Although the male mandarin duck's call is high pitched, both sexes' calls are quiet compared to other duck's, and they do not usually make the regular quacking noise.
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    Set up a camera and tripod. You can record the sounds that you hear and look back to see if you have managed to get a clear recording of a mandarin duck call. It is easier to try to record the male's clear and shrill call rather than the female's.
    • You can listen to recordings online to get a rough outline of what a mandarin duck's call sounds like.
    • While recording, look out for mandarin ducks flying overhead. The calls are usually made in flight.
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    Occasionally listen around for the traditional 'quacking' noises made by ducks. When they do quack, the sound can be heard clearly.
    • Even if the quack is not made by a mandarin duck, it will indicate that there are ducks in the area, and more often than not, there are multiple duck species in a big group.
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Community Q&A

  • Question
    How is a baby Mandarin duck different from a chick? They are very similar in appearance.
    Lily
    Lily
    Top Answerer
    Chicks have more black on them. Look out for the distinctive black eye stripe and fluffy black bodies.
  • Question
    Does a female Mandarin duck have a slight green patch on top of her head?
    Kam Jam
    Kam Jam
    Community Answer
    A female Mandarin duck does not, but a male Mandarin duck does. The females are mostly brown, the males are the colorful ones.
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References

  1. ↑ http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/0AvAnserif/anatidae/1ACrAvAn_aix/Aix_galericulata/Aix_galericulata.htm
  2. ↑ http://www.birdfieldguide.co.uk/Mandarin_Duck.html
  3. ↑ https://www.livingwithbirds.com/tweetapedia/21-facts-on-mandarin-duck
  4. ↑ https://uk.whatbird.com/obj/1259/identification/Mandarin_Duck.aspx
  5. ↑ https://www.bto.org/about-birds/bird-id/identifying-mandarin-and-wood-duck
  6. ↑ http://www.canaryzoo.com/bird%20specie%20mandarin%20duck.htm
  7. ↑ https://luontoportti.com/en/t/1653/mandarin-duck

About This Article

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 29,019 times.
20 votes - 91%
Co-authors: 4
Updated: September 15, 2022
Views: 29,019
Categories: Ducks | Birdwatching
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