Kelly and Tweeters,
Here's how I easily tell female wood duck from female mandarin. Look at the base of the bill. The mandarin's is squared off. The wood duck has a pronounced pointy projection behind the nares. This is visible on males also. Compare the illustrations in Nat. Geo.

Kelly Mcallister reported...
......1 Aix thingy. I tentatively identified it as a female Wood
Duck but I was a little uncertain because the white marking around the eye was a thin line extending
back from the eye. I didn't refer to any books until I was home and, then, I noticed that the female
Mandarin duck has eyes markings more closely matching what I had seen. So now I am committed to go back
until I can get a better look at this bird. I have a fair number of references but I cannot find a really
good picture of a female Mandarin or a good description of characteristics to consider when trying to
decide if I am looking at a Wood Duck or a Mandarin Duck. I did some web searches and came up with quite
a few pictures of male Mandarins but not a single female. Any advice would be appreciated (if I lived
closer to Chuck Pillings, I would drive over and get a first hand look at both species... at least he
was breeding both species back in my college days).


Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Olympia WA


Greg

Greg Toffic
Curator of Birds
Woodland Park Zoo
5500 Phinney Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98103
(206) 694-4836 (Desk)
(206) 233-7278 (Fax)
greg.toffic at zoo.org