Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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Why do ducks have colourful wing patches? The speculum is a bright, iridescent patch of feathers on a duck’s wing, visible mainly in flight. This video explains what the duck speculum is, how its colours are created through structural feather colour, and why different duck species have different speculum colours.

Learn how speculum feathers help with duck identification, species recognition, and mate selection, with examples from Mallards, Eurasian Teal, and Gadwall.

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#DuckSpeculum #DuckFeathers #Waterfowl #BirdBiology #Birdwatching #Ornithology