04/29/2025
Here is an older wood duck. You can tell it is old by the second white stripe on the tertial feathers ... the tertials are on the back, the three closest flight feathers to the body, the third tertial down has the thick white band at the trailing edge, the second, shorter tertial feather generally does not show any white until they are 5 years old, at which time it forms a small white dot in the center of the feather near the center shaft right at the trailing edge ... as they get older, this white increases in size ... this specimen is quite old as it has pretty much a full white band on this second tertial feather ... this feather is shorter than the two on each side of it, so in order to show off this feather, I slip it out some to show how much white it has. You may also see on this one a white spot above the eye, that is a single white feather the bird had ... not sure why, but I did leave it there as it was the way the bird is. This base was made by the client, he wanted me to mount the bird and put down some soil so he can add water and duckweed after he gets the mount back.
