{"id":28085,"date":"2015-09-02T04:53:24","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T10:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=28085"},"modified":"2025-09-02T10:05:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:05:00","slug":"drake-mallards-in-breeding-and-eclipse-plumage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/09\/02\/drake-mallards-in-breeding-and-eclipse-plumage\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake Mallards in Breeding and Eclipse Plumage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DrakeDrake Mallard in eclipse plumage – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> I was able to photograph a Mallard drake as it lifted off from the water on the south side of the auto tour loop. A few of the shots were blurry because I had trouble locking onto the duck because of the busy background but I was able to lock on for three shots before the duck flew over the reeds. Once I was able to view the image on my computer monitor I could see a bit of green plumage on the duck’s head and realized this drake is going into breeding plumage.<\/p>\n

Drake Mallards do look different in breeding and nonbreeding plumage phases.<\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Mallard in breeding plumage – Nikon D200, f8, 1\/640, ISO 320, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Mallard drakes look their fanciest in breeding plumage and by October the drake in the first image will look like the drake above that I photographed in December of 2008 at a pond near where I live. Mallards are in breeding plumage from October until May when they will molt into their drabber nonbreeding plumage.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I mentioned that September signals cooler weather for me and these ducks don’t need a calendar to tell them that it is arriving.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Mallard photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge I was able to photograph a Mallard drake as it lifted off from the water on the south side of the auto tour loop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[124,27,1148,965,709,26],"tags":[4237,4053,4483,1129,126,2113,4062,1604,4246,2063],"class_list":["post-28085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-mallards","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-anas-platyrhynchos","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-drake","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-eclipse-plumage","tag-male","tag-mallard","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-waterfowl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t