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Features: Males have glossy, slate-blue plumage accented with white stripes and dots. Females are mottled brown. Habitat: In the summer these ducks breed on fast water rivers in western Oregon. During winter they can be spotted in rocky intertidal areas along the coast. Larger concentrations of wintering birds are usually seen in Lane, Lincoln and Coos counties. Techniques: These ducks are extremely rare in the bag. Their winter habitat of rocky intertidal areas are mostly inaccessible to hunters.

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: The coot can't be mistaken in a wetland. With a black body, white curved bill and red eyes, these birds often move in rafts on the water. Low flyers, they still require furious wing beats before taking flight. Habitats: These birds can be found in wetlands, estuaries and bays where other waterfowl are found. Techniques: Coots are often taken as they enter decoy spreads. Not widely targeted, hunters may pinch a raft into a choke point to take birds on the wing.

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: Male cinnamon teal have a cinnamon-red head, neck, breast and belly. Like blue-winged teal, t hey have a bright patch of iridescent green on the rear of the wing and a bright blue patch on the front of the wing . They also have a distinctive red eye, a black bill and yellow legs and feet. Female and young male cinnamon teal are often confused with female blue-winged teal. Habitat: Prefer shallow, alkaline lakes where they dabble on aquatic plans. Techniques: Most cinnamon teal in Oregon are taken in eastern Oregon in the early season. They are not common…

Features: Similar to the greater scaup in appearance and habits, but smaller and lacking the white on the primaries. In the field, however, the black-and-white drakes and brown hens are very similar to greater scaups. Habitat: In general, the lesser scaup is more likely to be found in interior or freshwater habitats while the greater scaup is more a coastal bird. Techniques: Scaup are rafting birds attracted to large spreads of scaup decoys. Popular hunting destinations include coastal estuaries and lakes, where most hunters hunt from a boat. However, in the marshes of eastern Oregon, there can be good hunting…

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.

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: Drakes have a black head with a white spot below and in front of the eye -- rather than the crescent-shaped patch of the barrow's goldeneye -- white neck, breast and flanks and a black back and tail. Hens have a brown head, light neck, breast and belly, brown backs and flanks. Drakes and hens of both common and Barrow's goldeneye have a distinctive golden ring around the pupil. Habitat: It is a common migrant in northeastern Oregon and winter resident of the Snake, Columbia, Klamath, Rogue and Umpqua rivers. Techniques: These ducks travel in small groups of two…

Features: The other "greenhead", the drake is handsome with a dark iridescent green head, white breast, reddish belly, blue wing patch of coverts, and an iridescent green speculum. Brown hens also have blue wing patches similar to that of the cinnamon and blue-wing teal. Habitat: This dabbling duck prefers lakes and ponds where it uses its unique bill to sift through water in shallow areas. Food choices include the seeds of sedges, bulrushes and other aquatic plants, duck weed, and algae; also aquatic insects, mollusks and crustaceans. Common winter species in the Willamette Valley and Columbia Basin, but widespread throughout…

Features: The drake has a red head, black breast and tail coverts, and steel gray back, flanks and tail. Hens are a medium brown. During courtship, the drake utters a very unduck-like meow. Habitat: This diving duck is a locally common breeding species throughout the marshes of eastern Oregon such as Ladd Marsh, Summer Lake, the Warner Wetlands, and Malheur NWR. Known for nest parasitism, laying eggs in the nests of other birds, usually other diving ducks, redhead eggs have also been found in the nests of a variety of species. Techniques: The redhead is a very uncommon winter resident…