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Hi Bernard, -great new photos. Hi All, After looking at Bernard's new photos I am wondering about my original identification. The bird is indeed a Mandarin Duck but it may not be a female. Plumage wise it looks like a female but its bill is entirely pink suggesting to me that it might actually be an immature male. My only concern is what I read on the web, and I quote " Mandarin ducklings apparently do not have a basic I plumage, molting from the juvenal directly to the alternate plumage. Green feathers begin to appear on the head and mane of the males and black stripes on the chest at 10-12 weeks. " This particular bird is not showing any green in its head at all, in fact the head is entirely gray. It also lacks any black stripes on its chest. I also noticed that female Mandarins can vary greatly as to the amount of pink that appear on their bills, ranging from individuals that appear in photos at least to have entirely dark bills to apparent females with bills that are dominated by pink. So could this bird be a female with a bill that is slightly brighter than normal ? Another option is that the Mandarin might be a male that is under ten to twelve weeks, thus lacking the green on the head and the black stripes on the chest. If so at what age are Mandarins fully grown, size wise ? Another source of information suggested that young males may not show plumage changes until they are more than 6 to 8 months old. So my best guess is that is it an immature male that has yet to show other identifiable plumage markings, but any other opinions even to the contrary would be most welcomed as I am just looking to figure this bird out, one way or another. - cheers, Clarence PS Thanks to Jean for alerting us to this bird, Anita for having the initiative to go check things out and to Bernard for his most recent photographs. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
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