Identifying waterfowl gives many hours of enjoyment to millions of people. This guide will help you recognize birds on the wing - it emphasizes their fall and winter plumage patterns as well as size, shape, and flight characteristics. It does not include local names.Recognizing the species of ducks and geese can be rewarding to birdwatchers and hunters - and the ducks.
Hunters can contribute to their own sport by not firing at those species that are either protected or scarce, and needed as breeders to restore the flocks. It can add to their daily limit; when extra birds of certain species can be taken legally, hunters who know their ducks on the wing come out ahead. Knowing a mallard from a merganser has another side: gourmets prefer a corn-fed mallard to the fish duck.
This edition of Ducks at a Distance is a cooperative effort by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Southwest Natural and Cultural Heritage Association. Published by Southwest Natural and Cultural Heritage Association, Drawer E, Albuquerque, NM 87103.
Hines, Robert W. No Date. Ducks at a distance: A waterfowl identification
guide. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southwest Natural and Cultural
Heritage Association, Albuquerque, NM. 51pp.
This resource should be cited as:
Hines, Robert W. No Date. Ducks at a distance: A waterfowl identification
guide. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southwest Natural and Cultural
Heritage Association, Albuquerque, NM. Jamestown, ND: Northern Prairie
Wildlife Research Center Home Page.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/tools/duckdist/duckdist.htm
(Version 04NOV97).