Hi Sharron and Tweets,

Although I would never think of calling myself anything close to an
expert on plumages, I thought I would make a couple of comments. First,
I was under the impression that eclipse plumage reffered to

A. Male ducks only
B. Any male duck who is not in breeding plumage, not necessarily if it
is in the process of molting and was half and half. (If it was
in-between, why don't we just say it is molting?)

Male ducks in eclipse plumage (with few exceptions such as the Wood
Duck's head pattern or the bill color of Mallards) are generally hard to
tell from females.

Sorry if part B. is redundant, but it wasn't clear to me in Denny's post
(below)

Also, waterfowl in "winter" plumage (with a few exceptions such as
oldsquaw and Ruddy duck) are actually in their bright "Breeding" plumage,
because most waterfowl start courtship and pair up over the winter.


Michael Dossett
Bothell, Washington
mpdossett at juno.com

On Wed, 23 Sep 1998 13:02:12 -0700 osprey at nwinfo.net writes:
>Sharron,
>
>You are entering a part of birding terminology that can be a little
>murky. Basically, "alternate" plumage is the same as "breeding"
plumage. You
>might see "definitive alternate plumage" used occasionally. That means
that
>it is really, really alternate plumage. Or it might just mean that it
is
>definately alternate plumage.
>
>Alternately, "basic" plumage and "non-breeding" or "winter" plumage
>are the same. You will occasionally see descriptions of a bird's
plumage as
>percentages of how basic it is as it is molting from alternate to
>basic plumage. If it is described as basically basic, you can be
assured
>that it is pretty basic. Basically, those are the main differences.
Many
>people are quite satisfied just identifying the bird without confusing
the
>issue. "Eclipse" is the way waterfowl get when they are neither in
basic nor
>alternate plumage. It is the in-between plumage. Sort of like when
>someone asks you if you are dressed when you are about halfway dressed.
You
>can say you are in the eclipse stage of dress. You are neither naked
nor
>dressed, you are in eclipse. Actually, waterfowl molt shortly after the

>breeding season into the eclipse plumage and molt again into their
normal
>plumage. The eclipse stage is kind of boring because all ducks look
about the
>same during eclipse. I usually skip this stage by looking at shorebirds

>during this time.
>
>I hope this answers some of your questions.
>
>Denny Granstrand
>Yakima, WA

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