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Features: Males have white sides and breasts, deep green heads and dark backs. The pearl gray bodies and white breasts of females, subadults, and eclipse males are sharply delineated from their full-crested chestnut heads. Habitat: During the winter, these ducks are wide-spread in rivers, lakes and marshes across the state. Techniques: Not usually sought for table fare.

Features: The male has a striking black head with a white crest, white breast, black back, and chestnut sides. Females and immatures are dull grayish brown except for a reddish-brown crest. Habitat: During migration hooded mergansers are widespread, though uncommon, across Oregon. They are usually in sheltered areas of lakes and ponds and less commonly on estuaries. Often seem in pairs or small groups. Techniques: Not usually targeted, they can be part of a mixed duck bag.

Features: Males have a ragged-crested, dark green head, a reddish-brown breast, a dark back and gray sides. Females share the ragged crest; their rufous heads and gray bodies may make it hard to tell them from female common mergansers. Their bills, however, are noticeably slimmer. Habitat: Red-breasted mergansers are common from fall through spring, mostly in coastal bays and estuaries but occasionally on the open ocean. Techniques: Their preferred habitat within dangerous ocean waters makes them inaccessible to hunters.

Features: The pintail is an elegant long-necked duck. The long-tailed, full-plumaged drake is striking with a chestnut head, gray back and flanks, bright white breast and front of neck, and iridescent green-bronze speculum. The brown hen is nondescript, but shares the long neck and graceful shape of the drake. Both have a blue-gray bill. Habitat: Pintails prefer the open habitats of sheet water fields and large marshes or ponds. They are a puddle or dabbling duck and usually feed by dabbling or dipping rather than submerging. It is a rare breeder but an abundant fall migrant statewide and one of

Features: The black back, white crescent on the side just in front of the wing, and white-ringed bill separate the drake ring-neck from the scaups. The brownish neck ring of the male in alternate plumage is not prominent. The hen is a small dark brown duck with a buff face. Drakes in courtship give a head-throw accompanied by a wow note while hens utter a growling purr. The ring-necked duck can resemble a scaup, so hunters need to know what they are shooting at. Habitat: These ducks are pretty widespread during the winter months. They generally prefer fresh water, from

Features: Greater scaup are almost the size of redheads. In hand, they are easily distinguishable from lesser scaup by size and by the white wing stripe extending beyond the secondaries into the primaries. In the field, the two species can be difficult to separate. Drakes are black on both ends and white in the middle. Although not extremely reliable, in good light, generally the black head of drake grater scaup have a green sheen, while the head of a drake lesser scaup have a purple sheen. Hens are dark brown with a white mask around the base of the bill

Features: Black scoters‘ plumage is pure black uninterrupted by any white. The swollen bright orange-yellow knob on the otherwise black bill is smaller than that of other scoters. Females' uniform soot upperparts and dark head cap are clearly delineated from paler cheeks. Habitat: This scoter can be uncommon to locally common along the coast fall through spring, usually on the ocean. Techniques: Like other scoters, black scoters are ducks of the open ocean, and inaccessible to most hunters.

Features: Males' plumage is entirely black except for a small white teardrop around each eye, and white secondaries that form a conspicuous square wing patch during flight. A black knob graces the males' swollen, white-ridged, orange bills. Females and immatures are dark brown above and pale below with diffuse white patches in front of and behind the eyes. Their bills are dark. Habitat: Abundant along the coast from fall through spring. Techniques: Rarely taken as part of a mixed duck bag, their habit of resting and feeding on open ocean waters makes them inaccessible to most hunters.

Features: Except for adult drakes in breeding plumage, blue-wings are difficult to distinguish from cinnamon teal. Adult blue-wing drakes have a gray head with white crescent between the eye and bill. Hens and young of both species are nondescript small brown ducks, but show the prominent blue wing-covert patch in flight. Blue-winged teal is an early migrant and extremely rare winter resident in Oregon. Many hunters who believe they have shot a blue-winged teal actually have probably taken a hen or young drake cinnamon teal, both of which have identical wings with a large blue shoulder patch.