1. | Upper wing: primaries, secondaries, tertials, and their coverts: all an unpatterned black or dark brown to gray-brown | Go To 2 |
1. | Upper wing: primaries, secondaries, tertials, and their coverts not uniform in color or pattern | Go To 6 |
2. | Notch-length 155 mm. or shorter; primaries strongly curved ventrally; some underwing middle coverts white | Ruddy duck |
2. | Notch-length 180 mm. or longer; primaries only slightly curved ventrally; underwing coverts uniformly dark | Go To 3 |
3. | Outermost primary black with inner web narrowing to about 5 mm. for approximately 70 mm. from its tip; or dark brown and about half the width of adjacent primaries | Black scoter |
3. | Outermost primary black, brown or blue and approximately the same width as adjacent primaries | Go To 4 |
4. | Outerweb of next to outermost primary narrows abruptly 30 mm. to tip; tertials solid black or dark brown (usually with a reddish cast) and narrow light edging | Oldsquaw (part) |
4. | Outerweb of next to outermost primary tapers gradually over length; tertials blue, black, or brown | Go To 5 |
5. | Outermost primary as long or longer than the next primary; notch-length 212 mm. or longer | Surf scoter |
5. | Outermost primary varies from longer to shorter than next primary; often bluish: notch-length 203 mm. or shorter | Harlequin duck (part) |
6. | Some secondaries part blue, green, or purple | Go To 7 |
6. | Secondaries not blue, green, or purple | Go To 16 |
7. | Some secondaries all or part blue or purple | Go To 8 |
7. | Some secondaries part green | Go To 12 |
8. | Blue bordered front and back by white on both the greater coverts and the trailing edge of the secondaries | Go To 9 |
8. | Blue bordered front or back (not both) with white | Go To 10 |
9. | Tertials straight, brown with light edging, or reddish brown grading into silver-gray; underwing white | Mallard |
9. | Tertials curve outward, usually blue; middle and lesser coverts white or brown; underwing part dark | Steller's eider |
10. | Greater, middle, and lesser coverts brown; tertials longer than secondaries; underwing white | American black and Mottled ducks 1 |
10. | Greater, middle, and lesser coverts blue or bluish; tertials approximate secondaries in length; underwing not white | Go To 11 |
11. | Trailing edge of secondaries white; underwing barred | Wood duck |
11. | Trailing edge of secondaries dark; underwing dark | Harlequin duck (part) |
12. | Middle and lesser coverts blue | Go To 13 |
12. | Middle and lesser coverts not blue | Go To 14 |
13. | Primary shafts white; notch-length 210 mm. or longer | Northern shoveler (part) |
13. | Primary shafts brown; notch-length 205 mm. or shorter | Blue-winged & cinnamon teals |
14. | Greater coverts banded with cinnamon; trailing edge of secondaries banded with white; outerweb of most distal tertial longitudinally striped with black or brown | Go To 15 |
14. | Greater coverts banded with black; trailing edge of secondaries banded or unbanded; outer web of most distal tertial white or whitish | American wigeon (part) |
15. | Notch-length 200 mm. or less | Green-winged teal |
15. | Notch-length 240 mm. or more | Northern pintail (part) |
16. | Three or more secondaries white or whitish | Go To 17 |
16. | Secondaries (exclusive of trailing edge or flecking) not white | Go To 27 |
17. | Some greater coverts black; none white | Go To 18 |
17. | Some greater coverts are white or partly so | Go To 20 |
18. | White confined to 3 or 4 secondaries next to tertials; others cinnamon or light edged with internal patterns; underwing white | Gadwall |
18. | Most secondaries white, banded with black near their tips; upperwing covert black or dark brown often flecked with white; underwing partly dark | Go To 19 |
19. | White of upperwing confined to secondaries | Lesser scaup |
19. | White of upperwing extends to primaries | Greater scaup |
20. | All upperwing secondary coverts so heavily vermiculated with white as to appear white | Canvasback (part) |
20. | Some upperwing secondary coverts not white, none vermiculated | Go To 21 |
21. | White on secondaries does not reach the shafts; tertials black with central white stripes | Hooded merganser |
21. | White extends to the shaft or beyond; tertials black, dark gray, or white with black margins | Go to 22 |
22. | Tertials black; notch-length 180 mm. or less | Bufflehead |
22. | Tertials variable; notch-length 190 mm. or more | Go To 23 |
23. | Underwing coverts all solid black, gray, or brown | Go To 24 |
23. | Underwing coverts mostly white; upperwing middle and lesser coverts white, black, or gray | Go To 26 |
24. | Middle, lesser, and marginal coverts are a uniform black or brown; notch-length 245 mm. or longer | White-winged scoter |
24. | Middle and lesser coverts white, or black washed with white or gray; notch-length 240 mm. or less | Go To 25 |
25. | Black bases extend over more than half of each greater secondary covert | Barrow's goldeneye |
25. | Black bases extend over less than half of each greater secondary covert | Common goldeneye |
26. | Black bases of secondaries are exposed on a normally spread wing | Red-breasted merganser |
26. | Black bases of secondaries are covered on a normally spread wing | Common merganser |
27. | Secondaries gray, usually with white tips and a dark sub-terminal band | Go To 28 |
27. | Secondaries brown or black, without white trailing edge | Go To 29 |
28. | All upperwing coverts dark brown to black; tertials dark brown to black with faint greenish sheen | Ring-necked duck |
28. | All upperwing coverts gray to gray-brown, may vary from plain to heavily flecked and/or vermiculated with white; tertials vary from gray-brown with or without flecking to white well vermiculated with dark gray | Redhead or canvasback (part)2 |
29. | Secondaries black or mostly so | Go To 30 |
29. | Secondaries brown or brownish | Go To 34 |
30. | Tertials white or mostly so | Common eider (part) |
30. | Tertials black, olive, or mostly brown | Go To 31 |
31. | Tertials black | Go to 32 |
31. | Tertials olive or mostly brown | Go To 33 |
32. | Tertials sharply curved; middle and lesser coverts black, black and white, or white | King eider (part) |
32. | Tertials straight; upper wing black with most coverts washed with dark cinnamon; underwing entirely black | Fulvous whistling duck |
33. | Tertials olive; bases of primaries and secondaries white; underwing black | Black-bellied whistling duck |
33. | Tertials mostly brown; outer web of most distal white; pale barring on underwing | American wigeon (part) |
34. | Primary shafts white; underwing white | Northern shoveler (part) |
34. | Primary shafts brown; underwing dark and/or heavily barred | Go To 35 |
35. | Trailing edge of secondaries white; greater coverts light edged | Go to 36 |
35. | Trailing edge of secondaries washed with buff | Go To 38 |
36. | Tertials brown, longitudinally striped, and pale edged | Northern pintail (part) |
36. | Tertials brown, edges washed with cinnamon | Go To 37 |
37. | Tertials sharply curved | King eider (part) |
37. | Tertials slightly curved | Common eider (part) |
38. | Middle and lesser coverts dark brown with some well-defined buff edging | Common eider (part) |
38. | Middle and lesser coverts dark brown well washed with pale buff | Oldsquaw (part) |
1Mottled ducks occur only in southern Florida and the Gulf coast west to include Texas. American black ducks are rare in this area.
2 The specula of all redheads are recognizably lighter gray than those of adult female and both sexes of immature canvasbacks.