wood duck question?

[neepgrin]

Is this wood duck a juv male? the fellow in the front. He seems to be missing some essential body colors. My bird book speaks of "eclipse" plumage, but does not describe what that would look like or why it occurs...... any help would be appreciated,



thanks

[Gord]

Hi, Neepgrin! Good to see you.

It could be a young male like you think just working on getting full colours. Looks like it to me.

Eclipse plumage is the moult when a male loses the colours for a brief period. This usually happens late summer but sometimes some birds seem to be slow getting the colours back.

[neepgrin]

Thanks for the info Gord. My book has standard pictures and descriptions, but there are always exceptions and variations. Thanks for explaining the eclipse plumage, i was having such trouble finding a description of it.