adult male

adult male adult female European distribution male

Identification

The orange head and ‘sails’ and especially the dramatic, tapering white eye-stripe makes the male unmistakeable. The female is also distinctive with her grey head, pink bill and heavily spotted breast and flanks but you have to check that she’s not a female Wood Duck, another species which sometimes escapes from captivity. The key thing to look at is the shape of the white marking around each eye. In Mandarin Duck this extends backwards from the eye in a long, narrow tapering line, like the outline of white spectacle frames, but in Wood Duck it is shorter, broader and more blunt.

Habitat

Feral populations nest in holes in trees, usually close to rivers or ornamental lakes, especially where rhododendrons provide waterside cover.

Behaviour

Part of the male's display involves sticking out its throat and then bobbing the head quickly up and down. This looks as though the bird is 'burping' but is accompanied by a soft call.

Migration

Most birds largely sedentary, although some do undertake movements.

This information is taken from the BirdFile on the appropriate BirdGuides DVD-ROM. As well as video and sounds, our CD- and DVD-ROMs contain additional text on Voice, Sexing, Ageing, Food, Nests and Eggs and more.

For the purposes of our bird news services, Mandarin Duck is classed as Local: generally fairly regular or common species that a 'county lister' or a birding beginner might be interested in going to see. (Note that rarity levels are currently applied nationally and may not reflect local variations in abundance.)

Plymbridge Woods NT, Devon 24/04/2010	Ipswich, Suffolk 24/07/2010	Eyeworth Pond, Hants 14/07/2010	Eyeworth Pond, Hants 14/07/2010	Eyeworth Pond, Hants 06/07/2010
Eyeworth Pond, Hants 06/07/2010	Eyeworth Pond, Hants 06/07/2010	Cannop Ponds, Glos 26/06/2010	undisc. site, Shrops 22/06/2010	Cannop Ponds, Glos 31/05/2010

 View all pictures of Mandarin Duck

BTO BirdFacts: Mandarin Duck	Edit this link
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sicoZP8GaoE   Mandarin and friends	Edit this link
Mandarin with ducks of dubious parentage - Rishworth 2010	Broken link
Mandarin/Mallard "couple" , Brighouse 2010	Edit this link
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