Duck ID Please?

Can anyone ID this Duck for me please? I spotted him on a local river this morning, but can't find him in my field guide!?!

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I think it's a Mandarin Duck---beauty shot!

Great shot, Scott. --Rick

JimLittle wrote in post #3324371
I think it's a Mandarin Duck---beauty shot!

Ah! That's why it looks familiar... I thought they always had the sticky up bits at the back hehe!?!

Thanks Jim.

rrdjserv@earthlink.net wrote in post #3324407
Great shot, Scott. --Rick

Thanks Rick.

Great shot of a mandy drake. They loose their "orange sails" (the sticky up bits") when they begin their moult.

Glennie

Great shot! Mandrian's beauty is rivaled only by a drake wood duck IMO. I have seen them a few times in the wild here (California) but were most likely just escapees from some type of captivity.

Glennie1 wrote in post #3334135
Great shot of a mandy drake. They loose their "orange sails" (the sticky up bits") when they begin their moult.

Glennie

Thanks Glennie, would they start their moult in the Spring? (i'm still a bit new to this Birding thing)

MikeI wrote in post #3335192
Great shot! Mandrian's beauty is rivaled only by a drake wood duck IMO. I have seen them a few times in the wild here (California) but were most likely just escapees from some type of captivity.

Thanks Mikel. I've never seen a Wood Duck, not sure if you get them in the UK either!?! Mandarin's aren't endemic (is that spelt right!?!) either, i think they are feral; but as they are so pretty we'll just let that slide hehe!

Great shot, seems a bit dark to me here though, maybe lighten/brighten it slightly?

KAC

Thanks Kenny.

I've made a slight adjustment, but anymore than this completely blows the white.

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beano, fantastic shot of the Mandarin. If you want to see Wood Ducks or any ducks for that matter, take a trip to the Wetland & Wildfowl Trust at Slimbridge, Gloucs. Its a shot drive down the M4 for you and is well worth the visit. You won't believe how many ducks/geese/swans/flam​ingos they have. My personal favourite is the NeNe or Hawaiian Goose, a beautiful bird.

beano wrote in post #3335406
I've made a slight adjustment, but anymore than this completely blows the white.

Could you perhaps bring up the midtones a bit to brighten the overall photo (without losing too much contrast, anyway), and thus preserve the white highlights, too?

I guess you could also do some selective masking in making the adjustments, but you'd run the risk of getting some unnatural-looking tonality in doing so.

exerda wrote in post #3336684
Could you perhaps bring up the midtones a bit to brighten the overall photo (without losing too much contrast, anyway), and thus preserve the white highlights, too?

I guess you could also do some selective masking in making the adjustments, but you'd run the risk of getting some unnatural-looking tonality in doing so.

I don't know if you are using photoshop to do this or not, but the shadows and highlights does amazing things for shots like this if you want to try and pull out the shadow detail.

KAC

Cheers JuSlaughter, is that the same place that have the Glossy Ibis at the moment? If so, i'm hoping to get up there pretty soon.

exerda wrote in post #3336684
Could you perhaps bring up the midtones a bit to brighten the overall photo (without losing too much contrast, anyway), and thus preserve the white highlights, too?

I guess you could also do some selective masking in making the adjustments, but you'd run the risk of getting some unnatural-looking tonality in doing so.

kenyc wrote in post #3336696
I don't know if you are using photoshop to do this or not, but the shadows and highlights does amazing things for shots like this if you want to try and pull out the shadow detail.

KAC

See this is where my limitations in Photoshop really show... If anyone wants to have a bash at it, just let me know what you did. I'm always happy to learn more processing skills.

kenyc wrote in post #3336696
I don't know if you are using photoshop to do this or not, but the shadows and highlights does amazing things for shots like this if you want to try and pull out the shadow detail.

KAC

The only problem I have with shadows & highlights is that it's an adjustment, and cannot be applied as an adjustment layer like Levels and Curves can, which makes it tougher to tweak once you've applied it (and, technically, it's a destructive adjustment, I believe). You can do a lot of the same stuff in Curves, though admittedly it can be quite a bit more difficult to accomplish.