Port Huron Long-tailed Ducks, Pt 2 - 14 Jan 2026

After leaving the Bluewater Bridge portion of the St. Clair River I drove south toward Desmond Marina and Desmond's Landing where I found a large congregation of Long-tailed Ducks close to shore. Skies were still dark and rain was threatening, but the air here was surprisingly calm. So I grabbed the camera and approached the breakwall hoping to get some photos of the ducks in various plumages and poses. Boy, did I ever...

As I approached the break wall the large raft slowly began swimming to deeper water, but I managed to get some photos of Long-tailed Ducks flying past me along the shoreline, and some swimming out from shore. Though lighting was not terrific I didn't have to worry about shadows and glare from the east-rising Sun across the river. This would give me a chance to document and attempt to age some of the year classes of these seabirds. The Sony a1+600/4+1.4TC at 30fps and Auto-ISO (100-64,000) allowed me to stop action even under poor lighting conditions.

I first attempted to age Long-tailed Ducks after a trip to Port Huron in January 2013. My blog post  consisted mainly of digiscoped images but was a great introduction into the attempt at aging these ducks. Long-tailed Ducks are unique in that they have 3 molt cycles per year (unlike other duck spp. that only have 2); a Basic molt, an Alternate molt, and a Supplemental molt in between. This results in a duck that shows great variability in appearance between breeding (Alternate) and non-breeding (Basic) plumage as a Supplemental plumage shows transitional appearance. I cover this in more detail in a blog post from January 2014. As I've done in the past, I will start with the easiest and classiest-looking ducks first:

Adult (breeding) males

Pyle (2008) calls these birds After Second Year (ASY) with Definitive Basic (DB) plumage. The clean White head (sometime showing a yellowish forehead), clay-colored face, white border behind eye, black cheek patch, white scapulars that flow off the back, brown-black back and chest feathers, and a long tail streamer (r1 retrix) make these handsome birds easy to identify. The pink subterminal band on the bill help distinguish the males from the females that have blue-gray bills.

White scapular feathers drape off the back like frosting

Note the dark central tail feathers are bordered by outer white tail feathers (or retrices)

In flight you can see the extent of the black chest and white underbelly and clean-white throat.

Note black back and dark wings

Incidentally, below is an adult male that has started molting into formative / pre-alternate plumage that I photographed in January 2014 from Port Huron. 

Non-breeding males (juvenile, 1st-Winter, 2nd-Winter)

Because of supplemental molts these Long-tailed Ducks can be confusing to ID. Generally, they can be ID'd as males by the pink subterminal bill coloration and the presence of a central retrix that is longer than surrounding retrices. Length of the white scapular can also provide clues to year class, but may be non-definitive. But who doesn't love a challenge.

This duck with a pink bill is a suspected juvenile / 1st-winter male based on brownish scapulars, brown chest feathers, dark cap, and brownish wash on sides and flanks.

2nd-winter male shows white scapulars with elongated terminal feather. Brown wash suggests supplemental / pre-alternate molt.

This male shows dark facial feathering and brown on sides and flanks. White flanks partially covered in brown feathers suggests a 1st-winter male, but when it dove the outer retrices are white and the central retrix is slightly elongated. I suspect that it is a 2nd-winter male beginning its supplemental / pre-alternate molt. 

This non-breeding male flew in and showed tail feathers with no elongated central retrix, overall white underside and thin black chest feathering. I suspect 1-winter male.

Another suspected 1st-winter male based on thin white scapular. This may also be undergoing a supplemental molt.

This is an interesting non-breeding male. I initially thought that it might be a juvenile molting into 1st-winter basic plumage. However the white scapulars suggest 2nd-winter male and the extensive brown feathering on face, chest and the scapulars suggest pre-alternate molt.

When it dove, however, there was no evidence of elongated central retrix, and all retrices are uniformly brown. Has tail molt occurred? No idea...

Here is another non-breeding male (diving) based on black back feathers and long, white scapulars. The broken black and gray feathering suggest a 1st-winter male. When it dove the tail feathers showed no elongated central retrix. Again, unsure if there is any tail molt occurring.

This one looks like a 2nd-winter male based on long scapulars and elongated central retrix. There is also evidence of pre-alternate molt based on browning in shoulder feathers/scapulars and face.

Female Long-tailed Duck

Female Long-tailed Ducks can be identified by uniform blue-gray bills but some may show a pink wash toward the terminal end. 1st-winter females tend to have frost-colored or whitish scapulars while 2nd-winter / adult females have brown-fringed scapular with darker centers. 

Dark cap and whitish scapulars against a blue bill appears to make this a 1st-winter female Long-tailed Duck. 

Another presumed 1s-winter female.

And another presumed 1st-winter female (behind adult male).

1st-winter female.

Suspected 1st-winter female possibly starting supplemental molt?

This suspected 1st-winter female shows scapulars with white fringes and dark centers. 

I'm guessing 2nd-winter female undergoing supplemental / pre-alternate molt based on dark cap, evidence of brown facial feathers and extent of brown on breast, and back feathers appear redder than gray. 

2nd-winter females show light-brown scapulars on darker brown back and wing feathers. They also tend to show darker caps relative to adult/breeding/ASY females. 

These are suspected adult (ASY/breeding) females based on light head, yellowish eyes, and brown scapulars w/ dark centers. Supplemental pre-alternate molt may be starting, as well.

These ducks are suspected 2nd-winter/ASY females that appear to be undergoing supplemental / pre-alternate molt based on brown-fringed dark scapulars, dark cap and brown feathers on face. Three different females with progressively extensive pre-alternate molt

Below is a flight shot showing presumed 2nd-winter female (left) and 1st-winter female (right). Scapulars are more light-brown on the duck w/ the lighter head while the darker-capped female (right) shows more gray on the scapulars.

1st-winter female in flight.

I'm guessing 1st-winter female based on dark cap and mostly dark back w/ minimal brown scapulars.

Suspected 2nd-winter female based on more extensive brown on chest, neck and lighter cap. Note missing P8 feather in wing.

Another suspected 2nd-winter female.

Suspected female starting supplemental / pre-alternate molt. White-fringes on elongated dark scapulars does not rule out 2nd-winter?

Another 2nd-winter female. Some hint of supplemental molt?

Similar-looking female.

1st-winter, 2nd-winter, and 2nd-winter w/ supplemental molt?

Another 2nd-winter starting supplemental molt.

2nd-winter female coming in for landing.

Another 2nd-winter female coming in to land.

At this point it started raining, and almost within moments it started to snow. I took a few more photos at this point and suddenly got a "full card" warning. I had managed to fill both of my 160 Gb cards this morning, so it was a perfect time to get back in the car and head home. 

We would drive home in a snow storm that quickly turned into slick roads that caused us to start sliding on the freeway. Luckily, I managed to gain control and avoid any collisions, but was a wreck driving the rest of the way. Our marriage still survived...

As always I'm open to correction, so please let me know if I've mis-labeled these birds.

Desmond Landing, St. Clair, Michigan, US
Jan 14, 2026 9:57 AM - 10:18 AM
Protocol: Stationary
Checklist Comments:     Clouds turning to rain then sleet. 34F. Photos and extensive blog post w/ ID-Age discussion at:
https://birdingthroughglass.blogspot.com/2026/01/port-huron-long-tailed-ducks-pt-2-14.html
6 species

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)  2
Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis)  550     Swimming and rafting close to shore.
Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator)  4
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)  13
American Herring Gull (Larus smithsonianus)  4
Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus)  1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S294189376

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)