Hi there, with all the discussion recently on identifying American Black and Mottled Ducks, I thought I'd lay out some of my thoughts. This is, I think, one of the most notorious identification challenges on the Gulf coast because many of our Mottled Ducks can be quite dark. There have been numerous times when I myself have gotten excited over an odd duck only to realize that it was a dark Mottled. Some discussion of "old" and "new" field marks are here http://downtoearthquestions.blogspot.com/2014/12/notes-on-separating-mottled-and.html I discuss the supraloral contrast that David Sarkozi alluded to in one of his posts. C-T Lee Houston Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at //www.freelists.org/list/texbirds Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission from the List Owner