Duck Photo Download

[Thora Buckner]

Thelong, slender neck, plank-like wings, and long legs projecting beyond the tail make this recognizable as a whistling-duck. Juveniles show a pale brown belly, gray bill, and pale pink legs and feet.

The stout bill and slim neck help create the whistling-duck "look." The pink-orange bill, white eyering, and large black belly patch that extends up the flanks combine to rule out other similar species.

Duck photography is a great way to practice your skills as a wildlife photographer. In North America, ducks are common in our lakes, ponds, and rivers. As a conservation nature and wildlife photographer, I always seek new ways to keep my skills sharp or learn new things. Will your photos of local ducks grace the walls of a museum or the pages of National Geographic? The chances are unlikely, but you never know. However, these opportunities to practice wildlife photography are priceless, and these tips are important to consider.

An intimate understanding of any subject will infinitely improve your photos. Unlike many bird species, ducks are less erratic when flying. They have a consistent flight path when landing in water. Moreover, they are even easier to track in water due to their relatively slower predictable movements. Larger species of waterfowl take extra time to get up in the air. Use this understanding to grab nice shots of their wings touching the water.

Courtship displays are good times to get action shots. When a duck raises straight out of the water to flap its wings to impress its female and intimidate its rivals can be the best time to grab a unique composition. Set the camera to burst mode or high-speed continuous and let the camera capture the perfect moment.

First and foremost stay safe. All local and city parks are not created equally. Humboldt Park in Chicago where most of the images in this story were taken has its issues with crime and homelessness. Always pay close attention to your surroundings and use common sense.

That being said, I love Humboldt Park for duck photography and bird migrations. Understanding your location allows you to have a better chance of finding your subject and stronger compositions. Where does the sun rise or set? Where do the ducks like to gather? What locations in the park make for better backgrounds in my final shot? These are all important questions to consider.

Certain portions of my local parks lagoon are windier than others. The open water areas are harder to shoot in than the narrow channels protected by the wind. The environment plays a huge role in the outcome of each photo, having a better understanding of your location is a good way to increase your odds of turning good photos into great photos.

Landing shots, or courtship displays, add an element of action to the scene. Consider both portraits and environmental shots. Portraits are great, but sometimes, the environment included in the composition tells a stronger story. Water droplets and feather details are always a favorite theme for my online audience.

Photographers have long coveted golden hour and blue hour as the best times to photograph wildlife. For the most part, waterfowl photography is not different. Good-quality wildlife photos need quality light to make them special. I can argue that with certain species, like the mallard duck, mid-day will work because the brilliance of their head features really shines in bright light. However, I strongly encourage you to get up early for a few days to practice at sunrise.

Like most wildlife, duck species are most active in the early morning, which is perfect for the lighting conditions we want. Front lighting or backlighting creates a very different final image. An early morning or late afternoon sun, when placed behind the photographer facing the subject, highlights the details in the feathers and saturates the color. However, when placed behind the subject in front of the photographer, this creates silhouettes, making negative space and adding a rim light to the subject.

When I arrive, my camera settings are usually slightly different from the day before. However, good practice is to have a few key settings as a starting point and then adjust from there. For the best outcome, knowing the look you are trying to achieve ahead of time will go a long way. Sketch or visualize your scene, and then go create it. I recommend studying the basics of nature photography and practicing often to gain a better understanding of what the camera will do for you.

I like to shoot all my photos in RAW format, slightly underexposed, to save as much detail as possible. Exposing for the highlights works well. Using a histogram and checking for clipping works well in theory, but I find moving subjects in changing lighting gives me too much to think about. In turn, I typically underexpose my scene by a half stop or a full stop, depending on the light. Because of that, When I pull my photos from the memory card onto Lightroom, these are the adjustments I usually have to make to the final image.

A sea duck typically seen in northwest North America, Greenland, and eastern Canada, the Harlequin Duck winters along the coast of Atlantic Canada and New England as well as the Pacific Northwest coast.

Click on the Duck photographs to enlarge them or if you click on the Duck's name then it will take you to another page with information, more photos, and sometimes a video of that particular Duck.

If you are trying to identify a duck and can't find it on this page then it may be a female or a male duck in eclipse plumage. It could also be a hybrid duck which is the offspring of two different duck species, which is quite rare.

It may also be a Domestic Duck which has escaped into the wild. They are quite a common sight in your local park. Most Domestic Ducks are descended from the wild Mallard and will also breed with them producing a hybrid Domestic Duck X Mallard (sometimes called a Manky Mallard, Feral or Domestic Mallard). These are also a fairly common sight and have a similar shape to a Mallard but are usually a bit larger with various coloured plumages.

Feral Domestic Muscovy Ducks are also fairly common in the wild in parts of the UK, Europe, USA and Australasia etc. They are large ducks which resemble the wild Muscovy duck (see photo above) but have a varied black & white or brown & White plumage.

If you have seen and photographed a Duck, Goose, or Swan and are struggling to identify it then you can email a photograph to us and we will do our best to identify it for you.

You can also post your wildfowl photos on our Facebook page to show them or ask for them to be identified.

I photographed this Mandarin duck today at a city park in San Jose. This is a very strange location for this species, as it is most often found in Asia. After speaking to some of the locals who visit the park often, I learned that this drake has been seen on and off at the lake over the last three years.

The Mandarin duck once flourished across eastern Asia, but today there are only about 1000 pairs throughout all of China, and about 1000 pairs in Russia. Japan is thought to have about 5000 pairs. They have also appeared in various locations in Europe, numbering about 1000 pairs in total. Because this species is not native to Europe, it is surmised that this population grew from escaped captive birds and flourished as a feral population. They have been breeding in the wild ever since. But where did this guy come from?

It was fairly overcast today, which has its advantages and disadvantages for bird photography. One of the downsides is that the sky is much darker, which means that shutter speeds must be slower than on a sunny day. However, benefits include a lack of harsh shadows from the sun (meaning I could photograph this bird from any angle, instead of with the sun directly behind me), and more saturated colors due to reduced glare. I was very happy to be able to photograph this species in decent conditions. The biggest bonus of course was that I only had to drive half an hour instead of flying to Asia or Europe!

Driving to Wilson Bay from Queenstown I was getting so excited by the snow capped mountains lurking above Lake Wakatipu. I had with me an underwater housing with the idea of jumping in the lake and capturing split landscape shots; alpine scenery above and clear cold water below.

One of the prettiest photo locations around Queenstown and my personal favourite, Wilson Bay was exactly how I wanted it to be. The sun was shining, snow had fallen on the peaks overnight and the lake was clear and still.

With my underwater housing ready to photograph the alpine landscapes, I instead slowly dipped it into the water in an attempt to photograph a split-level shot of these curious cuties. Wading into the near freezing water the duckies thought I was simply bringing the biscuits to them so they followed me and swam around waiting for my next move. I love that this image captures their curiosity!

You may view the entries on the USFWS Flickr site, closer to the contest date. Please remember these are low resolution scans that have not been color corrected. All judging will be done viewing the originals in person in a controlled environment. YouTube links for live streaming will be available closer to the contest date. Final scores by judges will be available after the contest.

You may view the entries on the USFWS Flickr site . Please remember these are low resolution scans that have not been color corrected. All judging was done viewing the originals in person in a controlled environment. Day 1 of the Contest and Day 2 of the Contest may be viewed online. Final scores by judges are now available.

The dates for the Federal Contest have been set for Thursday September 19 and Friday September 20, 2024. A location has not been announced. However, we are urging artists, duck stamp collectors and supporters, as well as the general public, to visit the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT to view the exhibition of original winning duck stamp artwork and other memorabilia this fall. More details on the exhibit and side events associated with the collection, the Duck Stamp Program, and migratory bird and habitat conservation will be coming and this site will be updated as information becomes available.

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