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I was actually looking this up the other day regarding ducks, and had trouble finding an actual answer. What's the difference between a breeding male, a non breeding male, and a juvenile male? They each look different, but why? Can an individual bird/duck go through phases of each? Somebody please info dump! Links greatly appreciated too!
“’Non-breeding’ plumage can mean any plumage that is not the plumage birds have moulted into specifically for the breeding season. (Some birds only moult once a year so at breeding time, their plumage is the same as the rest of the year, others have an additional moult early Spring into smarter feathers). So ‘non-breeding’ can mean an adult in winter plumage or an immature bird that has not yet reached maturity but as applied to birds that normally moult twice a year. Adult Birds moult out of their breeding plumage from around July onwards into a winter plumage. Usually it’s a lot more drab and less colourful than breeding plumage.” -Deb Burhinus
https://www.birdforum.net/threads/non-breeding-adults.402706/
Looks like they get into more detail but that was the first thing I found.
Awesome! There's a PDF referenced in there too that seems to go into a lot more detail about plumage and molt (40+ pages!), which I will have to read a bit later.
I've been seeing mallard ducks during my daily walks and have really been enjoying learning about them. They're seasonally monogamous, and this was an entertaining read about their mating habits: https://www.tyrantfarms.com/duck-mating/
Is this like celibate monks or something?