Notes from a Lake: The Mandarin Ducks

Anke Marsh

— 3 min read
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A photograph of a Mandarin duck with grey-brown feathers and some orange and blue.
A Mandarin duck on the lake (photo: Anke Marsh)

While I was photographing a particular Mandarin duck the other day, I was hoping that I would have a positive Plucky update. I spotted what I thought was a young Mandarin duck, a male fledgling starting to get his adult colourful plume. He was by himself, swimming where I had seen Plucky swim before. He ran his beak through the water, looking for something to eat, nibbled at the overhanging willow, jumped up here and there, trying to nab a dragonfly.

I watched, followed him round the lake and clicked. Hoping against hope that this was Plucky. I took a LOT of photos as I ran around the lake.

But there was a niggling doubt. Would Plucky, or indeed any of the Mandarin ducklings born around the same time, be so adult-like? So advanced in their fledging? Was this actually a male? Maybe a female? But what was that orange? I’d never seen that on a female. So. Many. Questions.

A photograph of a Mandaring duck on the lake. Mainly covered in grey-brown feathers with white mottling, like a female. But also tinges of blue on the wings as well as orange and blue tips to the wings.
Look at this gorgeous duck! But is it Plucky? Male? Female? (photo: Anke Marsh)

Back home, I went through the photos. The doubts remained. I looked through my various bird books – very little on Mandarin ducks. I remembered reading somewhere about males in eclipse phase. So I tried to find some reading on that. Even less info - mainly the writers just mentioned that males are 'more muted' when in eclipse. Just remember that phrase - more muted. So onto the old interwebs for info and images. Wikipedia came through with an image of a male in eclipse. More muted? Talk about the British understatement - this is a complete metamorphosis!

A photograph of a male Mandarin duck. He is facing forward and looks exactly like a female Mandarin duck ,except his beak is redder. That's it!
Male Mandarin duck in eclipse plumage (photo: John Beniston 2007, license CC BY-SA 3.0, from Wikipedia)

So here’s a male Mandarin duck in full breeding mode. Talk about bling. Wowser. Right? Male Mandarin ducks really pull out all the stops to attract mates.

A male Mandarin duck in full breeding gear (photo: Anke Marsh)

They are also really easy to spot. I’ve taken many a ‘record’ shot of the vegetation behind the lake, the wooded wetlands, and spotted the male mandarin ducks, trying to 'blend' amongst the vegetation. Count the ducks!

A photograph of some vegetation at the edge of the lake. In there are some Mandarin ducks. Maybe eight or more.
There are a lot of male ducks trying to hide in the vegetation (photo: Anke Marsh)

Once the breeding season is done, they moult and take on female colouring - grey brown feathers, white mottling, grey face with white eyeliner. Outside of a red beak and a bit of blue on their wings, they are difficult to differentiate from the females. This transformation certainly helps them blend into the background far better so they don’t attract prey to their young ones.

A photograph of a female duck with brown feathers and white mottling to her chest. Under her is a little duckling, keeping cosy.
Female Mandarin duck - with a baby Plucky under her (photo: Anke Marsh)

This male, however, decided he wanted to keep a little bit of his old clothing – a patch of the orange ‘sail’ from his wing feathers. And honestly, I can’t blame him.

A phototgraph of the male Mandarin duck swimming away. The back of his neck is grey, and wings are brown except for a bit of blue, white and orange.
He was done with the photo session. Bye!!!!! (Photo: Anke Marsh)

So, no Plucky yet. But it was really interesting to see what ‘more muted’ really means – I guess every day is a school day!

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