Different Duck Species in North America: A Field Guide

Every North American duck falls into one of a few groups, and the group is easy to read from behavior. Dabbling ducks tip forward to feed, leaving the rump in the air, sit high on the water with the tail held up, and spring straight off the surface when flushed. Diving ducks go under, ride lower with the tail near the water, and need a running start across the surface to get airborne.

Ducks Unlimited counts 12 common dabbling species in North America, plus the Hawaiian Duck and Laysan Duck in Hawaii, and 21 common diving species. Add 7 common goose species and the mergansers and stiff-tails, and that is most of what you will meet.

The group also predicts the shape. Divers have shorter, more compact bodies and stouter necks, fly straight and fast, and beat their wings much faster than dabblers; dabblers have broader, rounder wings that let them turn in tight spaces.

• [Mallard](/lookup/ducks-and-raptors/mallard): green head, yellow bill, white neck ring, chestnut breast; both sexes show an iridescent blue speculum with white margins above and below. Males average 24.7 in and 2.7 lb.
• [Northern Pintail](/lookup/ducks-and-raptors/northern-pintail): chestnut head with a white stripe running up the neck, and two very long black central tail feathers. Males average 25 in.
• [Gadwall](/lookup/ducks-and-raptors/gadwall): grey-brown, finely vermiculated, with a narrow dark bill; the only common dabbler with a white speculum.
• [American Wigeon](/lookup/ducks-and-raptors/american-wigeon): white forehead and crown with an iridescent green patch around the eye, and a white patch on the wing.
• [Northern Shoveler](/lookup/ducks-and-raptors/northern-shoveler): the spoon-shaped bill ends the argument. Powder-blue upper wing patch, green speculum.
• [Blue-winged Teal](/lookup/ducks-and-raptors/blue-winged-teal): white crescent in front of the eye on a blue-grey head, powder-blue wing patch; males average 16 in.
• [Green-winged Teal](/lookup/ducks-and-raptors/green-winged-teal): cinnamon head with a green stripe behind the eye; the smallest dabbling duck in North America.
• [Wood Duck](/lookup/ducks-and-raptors/wood-duck): crested, 17-20 in, in wooded swamps and ponds; the female has a white eye-patch on a grey head.

The speculum is the patch of color on the secondary flight feathers, at the trailing edge of the wing near the body. It is worth learning because it works on the brown, streaky females that all look alike on the water.

• Blue with white above and below: Mallard.
• White: Gadwall.
• Green with a rusty-orange front edge (male) or a white front edge (female): Green-winged Teal.
• Green behind a powder-blue forewing: Northern Shoveler and Blue-winged Teal; the shoveler's bill separates them instantly.
• Green with a rusty-orange front edge and a white rear edge: Northern Pintail.
• Green behind a white shoulder patch: American Wigeon.

The USFWS runs a harvest survey in which biologists identify species, sex and age of ducks from the wing alone, which is the strongest evidence that the wing carries more information than the body.

Most duck photographs that cannot be identified are of a brown duck. Three things cause it: females of nearly all dabbling species are mottled brown; males in late summer wear an eclipse plumage that resembles the female; and juveniles look like neither adult.

The way out is to stop looking at the body. Wing feathers are shed only once a year, so the speculum colors are the same in every season. Bill color and shape also hold: the female Mallard has an orange bill with black markings, the female Gadwall an orange bill with a dark ridge, the female Northern Shoveler a dusky orange spatula you cannot mistake for anything else, and the female Green-winged Teal a dark grey bill on a very small bird.

If a male in breeding plumage is swimming nearby, use him. Ducks of the same species usually stay together, and the drake is the easier bird to name.

A large white duck with an orange bill on a city pond is a domestic breed, not a species you will find in a field guide under that name. Domestic ducks are descended from the Mallard and from the Muscovy Duck, they are heavier than wild birds, and many are poor fliers or cannot fly at all. Mixed broods of odd-looking, blotchy birds on a park pond are usually the offspring of domestic and wild Mallards.

Do not feed them bread. Maine's Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife says bread is high in carbohydrate with little nutritional value, that excess protein during growth can cause angel wing, which leaves the feathers permanently pointing outward and the bird flightless, and that crowding around feeding sites raises stress and disease transmission, including botulism, fowl cholera and duck plague. Leftover food and droppings also push phosphorus and nitrogen into the water and feed algal blooms.

When a duck is too far away to see its face, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service guide Ducks at a Distance, by Bob Hines, is still the method to use. It was written for birds on the wing and lists size, shape, plumage pattern, wingbeat, flocking behavior, voice and habitat as the clues.

• Flock shape: Mallards, pintails and wigeon fly in loose groups; teal and shovelers pass in small, compact bunches; canvasbacks seen from far off shift from wavy lines into temporary V's.
• Wing sound: flying goldeneyes whistle, Wood Ducks make a swishing sound and canvasbacks a steady rushing sound.
• Voice: not every duck quacks. Drake pintails and wigeon whistle, drake Redheads purr and meow, and scaup hens are silent.
• Takeoff: puddle ducks spring off the water; most diving ducks patter along the surface first, and their large feet often show in flight.
• Scaup wing stripe: the pale band on the trailing edge of the wing runs almost to the tip on Greater Scaup and only about halfway on Lesser Scaup.

The same guide makes the point the speculum section above depends on: wing feathers are shed only once a year, so wing colors are always the same.

Many "what type of duck is this" questions are about farm and backyard ducks, which are breeds, not wild species. Metzer Farms, a California hatchery, publishes a breed comparison chart; the adult weights and eggs per year below are from that chart, checked 2026-09-25.

• Jumbo Pekin: 9-13.5 lb, 140-175 eggs. The hatchery calls it the most popular breed for commercial meat; the ducklings are yellow.
• Khaki Campbell: 3.5-4.5 lb, 165-240 eggs, known for laying.
• Rouen: 5-7.25 lb, 140-180 eggs. Colored like a wild Mallard, but at least three times the Mallard's weight and, unlike a Mallard, not a ready flier.
• Runner: 3.25-4 lb, 100-180 eggs, in black, blue, chocolate, fawn-and-white and silver.
• Cayuga: 4.75-6 lb, 130-180 eggs.
• Buff: 5-6.25 lb, 130-180 eggs.
• Swedish: 5-6.25 lb, 120-180 eggs, in black, blue and silver.
• Welsh Harlequin: 4.5-5.5 lb, 100-150 eggs.
• Silver Appleyard: 7-9 lb, 120-175 eggs.
• Magpie: 4.5-6 lb, 120-180 eggs.
• Call: 1-2 lb, 25-50 eggs; a bantam and a very good flier.
• Muscovy: 6.5-13 lb, 100-150 eggs; descended from the wild Muscovy Duck, not from the Mallard.

Weight does a lot of the work. A duck marked like a Mallard that weighs several pounds more and cannot fly is a Rouen, not a wild bird. For young birds, see duckling identification.

The Madagascar Pochard is usually called the world's rarest duck. According to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), it was thought extinct until 2006, when around 20 birds were found on a remote lake in northern Madagascar. A breeding program now keeps more than 100 birds at a center that opened in 2017; 21 were released onto Lake Sofia in December 2018, and 12 ducklings hatched there in 2019. It is a diving duck in the genus Aythya, the same genus as the Canvasback and Redhead.

In North America, "rare" usually means rare where you are. A naturalist's journal from California's Central Valley describes Barrow's Goldeneye as appearing only very rarely among flocks of Common Goldeneye there, and Eurasian Wigeon as a treat found in small numbers each winter. Both are worth a second look when a flock of their common relatives is in front of you.