{"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_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"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":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/mallard-drake-flight-mia-mcpherson-3314.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-7iZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":119515,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/01\/04\/fun-drake-mallard-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":28085,"position":0},"title":"Fun Drake Mallard At Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"On New Year's Day morning, I had fun photographing a drake Mallard from the auto tour loop of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge as he lifted off from the marsh.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Drake Mallard in flight on New Year's Day, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/mallard-drake-flight-funny-mia-mcpherson-0815.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/mallard-drake-flight-funny-mia-mcpherson-0815.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Pelicans","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/pelicans\/white-pelicans\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sandhill Crane right after the sunrise, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sandhill-crane-adult-mia-mcpherson-7067.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sandhill-crane-adult-mia-mcpherson-7067.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sandhill-crane-adult-mia-mcpherson-7067.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sandhill-crane-adult-mia-mcpherson-7067.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ruddy-duck-drake-mia-mcpherson-5552.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ruddy-duck-drake-mia-mcpherson-5552.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ruddy-duck-drake-mia-mcpherson-5552.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/ruddy-duck-drake-mia-mcpherson-5552.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":107402,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/10\/20\/jordan-river-mallard-drake\/","url_meta":{"origin":28085,"position":3},"title":"Jordan River Mallard Drake","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I took this low light Mallard drake photo yesterday while I walked along the Jordan River in the chill of the early morning.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jordan River Mallard drake in low light, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/mallard-drake-jordan-river-mia-mcpherson-1334.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/mallard-drake-jordan-river-mia-mcpherson-1334.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/mallard-drake-jordan-river-mia-mcpherson-1334.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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