I don't know, but 'Mr Flippers' is about the greatest duck name I've ever heard! 'Pisser', the cat is my all time favorite pet name--LOL! I wish you both well.

I'm going to bet that it's a male, seeing green feathers and all. Seems my memory tells me mallard hens are brown/light speckled.

Poochella
I am LOL here! Thanks for the comment on my ducks name. I think it's entertaining too. His Blue Swedish buddy is Mr. Flappers. :D Maybe I got carried away, but I thought it was too cute to pass up.
Now the name 'Pisser' for a cat is just absolutely right on in my experience! I've had HAD of experience with 'Pisser's....
Thanks for the reply.
Maggie chickenmama1

Hi Poochella
I've been thinking about these ducks who own me. I love the name 'Mr. Flippers' for the mallard, but I think I'll call the Blue Swede 'Master Flappers' instead of dubbing him/her 'Mister Flappers'. It seems to slide off the tongue a little easier when it's pronounced. 'Mister Flippers and Master Flappers.' I think it works. LOL My family and I are just loving our lives with these ducks! I have almost 6 grandkids... Maybe we'll write a story about them. :)
Oh, btw, the mallard has lots of brown black speckled looking feathers, though his breast feathers are a light shade of brick red. Very pretty.
Maggie chickenmama1

Sounds like probably a male. My red pheonix banty rooster is named Mr. Feeny. I love Mr. Flippers!

OH

..In my pond we have two regular mallards. Two males, always together, for months now...might be a gender preference thing?
Don't ask, don't tell :)
We call them Doug and Ernie.

I don't know what other ducks you have, but wild-type Mallards feather up fairly quickly. This is Mother Nature's "assist" to get them going in the wild.

ceresone.....Johnny Carson? Certainly you meant Karnack the Magnificent? ROFL! That's exactly what the Polish-type chicken head feathers make me think of! (holding the envelope to my head.....and the answer is.....)

lol, silver--exactly!!

I vote 'male' also... :)

Best name I ever heard for a budgie: Giblets!

I had an Americaunas hen once, right after we got her my 4 year old daughter walked by her and said, "Oh...hello Mrs. Black!" It stuck, even though Mrs. Black was brown in color. :)

How funny! I was surprised to see this thread today--and all because of my question about one little ducks true colors.
I'm not going to go near the gender preference issue! I'll let someone else address that one. LOL The rest is hilarious too! I needed a good laugh. :D

breezyb Thank you for that little tid-bit of info. about the wild mallards feathering up quickly. That explains the quick color. I have only one other duck and I got him as a buddy for the tiny wild baby mallard my son brought to me. So what I have is one 8 or so week old baby mallard and one 2-3 week old Blue Swedish. The Blue is twice the size of the mallard, though. I keep expecting him to admit to being a goose...as soon as he's able to talk, of course... ;O (Oh, my. Poor thing. She's crazy.)

ceresone OF COURSE I can imagine you and your husband sitting in the pen naming the chicks! Isn't that normal behavior for adults??? We've done it too! I have always had chicks too. These are my Accidental Ducks and I'm just thrilled with them and with all the jokes and laughter they seem to create.

Thank you all for your comments. Love 'em! Love those names too.

Maggie chickenmama1

Do mallard ducklings start out by getting their feathers in brown and then changing to the male colors later? Mine are 5 weeks old going on six and they are both starting to get brown mottled feathers like their mom behind their wings, on their chest and side. No green heads though. Probably too early to tell still.
Belinda

Yes - juvenile Mallards look like the female when first feathering out. The males color up later on.

Thanks breezyb.
Belinda

My intro to ducks was when we found a one winged mallard in our field. Hubby named him Winger. I've since read everything available on the web and own a few reference books. What I've learned thru reading and experience is that the males (mallards) have olive green bills the females reddishorange with black bills. Our little guy (we thought he was a she for quite a while) got his male plummage (bottle green head white neck ring and chestnut breast) in early fall.
Have fun.

Thanks for all your info. I find all info about ducks to be fascinating.

I spend "down on the ground" time with my ducks, so I see a lot of them close up. Mr. Flippers still has iridescent tiny green feathers on the top of his head. The sides of his head are turning dark like the top of his head, though no green plumage there yet. The stripe that extends from his bill, across his eye, is getting very dark too and seems to be wider almost each day. Today he has little fluffy white feathers (?) on one side of his neck, near where it joins with his body. His breast is the most beautiful shade of rust or light brick reddish. Each feather is beautiful. Each one is outlined in black. He has a double row of white feathers on his wings, with what looks like black between them. His bill is almost totally flesh colored with a hint of yellow-very small hint of yellow. He only has a slight bit of black on the tip of his bill and a very narrow strip of black up the middle of his bill with a little black at the top of his bill. When he walks through the grass he holds his little body down as close to the grass as he can and he walks very slowly while looking from side to side and up in the sky. He makes a deep almost clicking sound now along with what sounds like baby duck "cheeping" or slight "whistling". No. I don't think he's a Whistler! :) Sometimes he says, "unk" or something like that. I guess I'll need an interpreter for this duck talk. I mostly let him teach me about himself. I know how to help him grow, but he's teaching me about ducks.

Mr. Flappers is HUGE! He's beginning to get his "blue" feathers now and he has beautiful yellow/white feathers on his breast. These feathers are so fine that they look as though they've been air brushed onto his breast. He's sweet and is still such a baby. He loves to cuddle. He's just a perfect little friend for Mr. Flippers. Their talk together and the way they touch their bills together as they eat, and how they cross their necks when they lay down... They are so VERY pretty!

Only one problem so far: Mr. Flappers, the Blue Swedish, bit my wolf hybrid dog on the nose. My dog looked at me like his feelings were so hurt and he walked away, went into the house and laid down in his favorite corner. I know he never expected that. Since then he doesn't look at Mr. Flappers and he doesn't come near him any longer. These kinds of dogs have the most gentle ways and he has always helped raise the "babies" and he's always been friends with the chickens when they're grown up. I feel sorry for him. I've been hugging him and talking to him a whole lot more. He's very quiet now. I hope he'll get over it in a few days, but he usually stays sad for a long time and he seems to remember things. When our 19 year old Siamese cat died, he went into deep, deep mourning. We had to pull him out of it by making him go for rides and making him go for walks. It took him a long time. He's getting old now. He's about 10 y/o. I will make him take a nap with me now.
This duck stuff is exhausting! :)

cute names. Our sons usually name our farm animals and they come up with the MOST entertaining names - much better then we would. They named our male goat "Vincent Van Goat", the girls are Carmelle, Harriot (after James Harriot, the Scottish veterinarian and author), and Clementine. I can't remember all the ducks names but here are some: Spud Web, Webster, Kevin Duckworth, Waddlesworth.. there's a goose named Eleanor, One named Shaquille and I can't remember the rest. We have a persian kitty named "Bartholo-meow" and a great dane named Delaney. Horses are more normal: Syd, Ava and Brando. Fortunately, we were less creative when we named our human children: andrew, anthony, nathan, evan and elisabeth.

Ok - that's all the names of our critters.

Should change the title of this thread...

My son's chicken was named Drumstick...
Our Ducks are Cappy and Ducolupogus (Luppie).
Carrie

Mistake! Mr. Flippers feathers are outlined in brown--not black--like I stated above. Now he has beautiful iridescent blue color growing out with the black feathers and the two white rows are growing farther apart. Such a pretty baby. :)

When I was a kid, my neighbors had a collie named Clyde, and one day the wild ducks from the pond out back lost their mom and adapted Clyde the collie. He looked so forlorn,he couldn't go anywhere without this row of duckings following him. He'd lay down, they'd lay down, he'd get up, they'd get up and follow him. He'd look up at us with these eyes that said, what have I done to deserve this..I don't want to be a mom?

It sounds as if you have a male mallard there. Cute names ;)

My ducks are named: Jake, JRose, Apple, Striker, Jordan, Shere-Khan, Jamoca, Faith, Sulley, Fiona, J.R., Precious, Miracle, Feather, Shrek, Ranger, Sassy, Diego, Pocahontas, Troy, and we have a goose named Rain.

We have 5 dogs named: Annabelle, Angel, Maggie, Gracie, and Gretta.

A goat named: Reese

A rabbit named: Cadbury,

Theree cats named: Jasmine, Storm, and Samson.

And, 3 birds named: Peaches, Sunny, and Ivory.