{"id":8786,"date":"2018-03-11T09:06:29","date_gmt":"2018-03-10T20:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/?p=8786"},"modified":"2018-03-12T15:28:14","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T02:28:14","slug":"how-reliable-is-speculum-colour-for-duck-identification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/8786","title":{"rendered":"How reliable is speculum colour for duck identification?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_8809\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8809\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0036-web.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8809\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0036-web.jpg?resize=800%2C533&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Preening Pacific Black Duck showing typical green speculum with black borders and no white bars\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0036-web.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0036-web.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0036-web.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8809\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Preening Pacific Black Duck showing typical green speculum with black borders and no white bars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Processing images for my recent post on Grey Duck raised the question. How reliable is speculum colour for duck identification? The speculum is the bright iridescent coloured area on the secondary flight feathers of some ducks. In Mallards it is blue and in our native New Zealand Grey Duck (Pacific Black Duck &#8211;&nbsp;<em>Anas superciliosa<\/em>) it is green. Reviewing images on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz\/species\/grey-duck\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New Zealand Birds Online<\/a> I saw that speculum colour was being used to differentiate 2 individuals in one image as a Grey Duck (green speculum and &nbsp;Mallard\/Grey hybrid (blue speculum).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While processing images of a Black Duck from the Brisbane City Botanic Garden I noticed that the speculum in the one individual showed green in one frame, blue in another and blue grading to green in yet another frame. The colour is the result of iridescence rather than pigment so varies significantly with different lighting conditions, changing depending on lighting intensity and direction.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8808\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8808\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0029-web.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8808\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0029-web.jpg?resize=800%2C533&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Same individual showing blue speculum normally typical of a Mallard\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0029-web.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0029-web.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0029-web.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8808\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Same individual showing blue speculum normally typical of a Mallard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8810\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8810\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0046-web.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8810\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0046-web.jpg?resize=800%2C533&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Same individual Pacific Black Duck showing speculum grading from green to blue\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0046-web.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0046-web.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/BlackDuck_DSC0046-web.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8810\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Same individual Pacific Black Duck showing speculum grading from green to blue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This <a href=\"https:\/\/academy.allaboutbirds.org\/how-birds-make-colorful-feathers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article from The Cornell Lab<\/a> gives a good background to the mechanisms of bird colouration.<\/p>\n<p>In summary I think speculum colour can be a useful feature to use in the field but can be misleading if making a judgement based on a single photographic image of an individual duck. Classifying an individual Grey Duck as a hybrid based purely on speculum colour in a single photo may be inaccurate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photos with Nikon D500 and Nikon 300mm f4PF lens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Processing images for my recent post on Grey Duck raised the question. How reliable is speculum colour for duck identification? The speculum is the bright iridescent coloured area on the secondary flight feathers of some ducks. In Mallards it is blue and in our native New Zealand Grey Duck (Pacific Black Duck &#8211;&nbsp;Anas superciliosa) it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,178],"tags":[351,26,25,360,381,361,243,218,362,194,190,378,380,379],"class_list":["post-8786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-opinion","tag-australia","tag-bird-photography","tag-birds","tag-duck","tag-duck-identification","tag-grey-duck","tag-nikon-300mm-f4-pf","tag-nikon-d500","tag-pacific-black-duck","tag-photo","tag-photography","tag-speculum","tag-speculum-color","tag-speculum-colour","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How reliable is speculum colour for duck identification? - WildLight Photography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/8786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How reliable is speculum colour for duck identification? - WildLight Photography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Processing images for my recent post on Grey Duck raised the question. 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It is our native, mallard sized member of the genus, Anas. Our smaller teals, Grey Teal (Anas gracilis), Brown Teal (Anas chlorotis), Auckland Island Teal (Anas aucklandica) and Campbell Island Teal (Anas nesiotis) all belong to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"Grey Duck (Anas superciliosa)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Grey-Duck_D805731-web.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Grey-Duck_D805731-web.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Grey-Duck_D805731-web.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Grey-Duck_D805731-web.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16170,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/16170","url_meta":{"origin":8786,"position":1},"title":"Another Blue Duck Adventure &#8211; Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3 VR S","author":"tony","date":"January 15, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Another Blue Duck Adventure - how lying on rocks in the rain is one one of the best things in the world to do.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bird Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of Whio\/Blue Duck","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/BlueDuck-NZ9_1677-DxO-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/BlueDuck-NZ9_1677-DxO-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/BlueDuck-NZ9_1677-DxO-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/BlueDuck-NZ9_1677-DxO-web.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8972,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/8972","url_meta":{"origin":8786,"position":2},"title":"Okareka update","author":"tony","date":"April 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Lake Okareka is one of my favourite local bird photography destinations. It is a short drive up the road and I can be there photographing within minutes of leaving home. Unfortunately I have not been too often in the past year. This has largely been due to abnormally high water\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pied Stilts resting in sweet Okareka light","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/PiedStilts_DSC0518-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/PiedStilts_DSC0518-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/PiedStilts_DSC0518-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/PiedStilts_DSC0518-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9151,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9151","url_meta":{"origin":8786,"position":3},"title":"More Tongariro river photos","author":"tony","date":"July 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"After last week's Blue Duck venture to Turangi, I thought that I would share a few more Tongariro river photos. The primary aim was Blue Ducks but there are always more things to find. For birders the Tongariro river is well known as a Blue Duck destination but globally it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/TongariroFlyfishing-DSC_5743-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/TongariroFlyfishing-DSC_5743-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/TongariroFlyfishing-DSC_5743-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/TongariroFlyfishing-DSC_5743-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13037,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/13037","url_meta":{"origin":8786,"position":4},"title":"Turangi Whio","author":"tony","date":"October 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Photographing Whio\/Blue Ducks on the Tongariro River in Turangi","rel":"","context":"In &quot;birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/BlueDuck-D85_9017-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/BlueDuck-D85_9017-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/BlueDuck-D85_9017-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/BlueDuck-D85_9017-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18617,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/18617","url_meta":{"origin":8786,"position":5},"title":"More Longyearbyen Wildlife &#8211; Part 3 &#8211; Dog Yards","author":"tony","date":"March 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"More Longyearbyen Wildlife - Part 3 - Dog Yards. An excellent bird photography spot within an easy walk from town.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Arctic&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Arctic","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/arctic"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of a Common Eider duck male in flight","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/CommonEiderDrake-20240623-NZ9_1940-NEF-DxO_DeepPRIME-XD2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/CommonEiderDrake-20240623-NZ9_1940-NEF-DxO_DeepPRIME-XD2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/CommonEiderDrake-20240623-NZ9_1940-NEF-DxO_DeepPRIME-XD2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/CommonEiderDrake-20240623-NZ9_1940-NEF-DxO_DeepPRIME-XD2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}