Duckling sex

[Duckmomma45]

I purchased these rouens on Feb 25th. Today there heads looks slightly green. Does that mean they are males?

 

[TheDaringDucks]

So I (obsessively) observed my ducklings last year, trying to identify early markers of male vs female ducks like this green shimmer you've noticed on your ducks' heads. Here was my own duck's greenish sheen, last June-ish, when he was a month or so old.

HOWEVER, I have to say I DON'T think that the green shimmer is an indicator of sex. At around 1 month old, all my ducklings had a greenish shimmer to their heads, and I had both males and females. There didn't seem to be any difference in intensity of the green shimmer that was sex-linked either. I had one female whose head was very dark and looked relatively more green than even some of the males.

A better gauge I found was bill color (at least for ducks with natural/mallard coloring). Without hearing their voices, even pretty young while they are still just peeping, if you have a sharp eye for color, you may start to notice that the drakes' bills have a slightly olive cast to them, which will become bright yellowish green as they mature, whereas the hens have a more peach tone, which will turn orange and black as they mature.

Female on the left with the peachy bill, Male on the right with the olive bill.

This is a little less obvious because of the lighting, but you may be able to tell if you have a keen eye, which are drakes and which are hens!

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