I’ve always loved to hunt ducks, ever since I was young. Part of that comes from the pleasure that I find in swamps. Everyone else seems to want to bulldoze them and put in new shopping malls (which they tell me are way, way better than the existing shopping malls). I like swamps because water means life. They are fascinating ecosystems.

The biologists call black ducks Anas rubripes. We always used the term “Daffy” back in the day. They are a large dabbling duck that has very similar but slightly darker plumage than a hen mallard.

What is a dabbling duck? There are two basic kinds of ducks, dabbling (a.k.a., puddle) ducks and diving ducks. How are they different? I’m sure a wildlife biologist can rattle off a bunch of scientific things. As I see it, the puddle ducks tend to feed in shallow water by tipping with their rears in the air whereas divers swim deep underwater for food.

Another difference is that dabblers tend to have much larger wings compared to their body size. The result is that dabbling ducks can burst into flight, kind of like a helicopter, whereas the divers need to run along the water before they build enough speed to take off. Divers are more like an airplane than a helicopter and need a long runway to get into the air. You may have seen a Canadian goose run along the water in the same way before flight.

American black ducks were first reported as a species in 1902 by William Brewster. They are the heaviest of the genus Anas. They often interbreed with mallards. In fact, many other ducks are able to interbreed although unlike mallard and black duck hybrids, most are sterile.

Female black ducks lay between 6 and 14 eggs and both parents share in the incubation, keeping them warm until they hatch some 25 to 30 days later. The ducklings take about six weeks to fledge (grow feathers).

Populations of black ducks are in decline but are not yet endangered. Why? You already know the answer. Yes, it is loss of habitat. Bag limits have been no more than two black ducks per day as far back as I can remember. It has often been only one per day.

If you are a duck hunter, how can you tell the difference between a black and a hen mallard? It’s not easy. Other than the slight difference in color, the speculum feathers on the wings of black ducks lack the white bands that are found on mallards, consisting of iridescent blue with black bands on both sides. It’s hard to see those speculum feathers on top of their wings while flying above and many blacks are mistaken for mallards.

I would encourage everyone to take a waterfowl identification course. It’s fun and you will learn a lot. Even if you don’t hunt ducks, the course is well worth it.

Let’s all enjoy the outdoors!

John S. Van Etten is the current president of the Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs of Sullivan County, Inc.