The female is pale brown with streaks overall and a darker belly, dark eyes, and a brown to orange bill. She has a blue wing patch. In eclipse plumage, the male is similar to the female but with redder plumage, and a grey head with a white crescent on the face.

The female garganey is like the male in eclipse plumage but paler. There is an obvious white spot near the bill. Eiders feed by diving, dipping, and up-ending often in shallow water, foraging for molluscs, crustaceans, and sometimes fish. They can also swim underwater. The male’s haunting call carries far, while the female produces a series of guttural sounds during breeding season. Mallards upend in shallow water, feed from the surface, and sometimes dive. They also graze on dry land, and forage for food in fields and woodland. The female is brown with dark streaks and brown ‘V’ shapes on the flanks. The tail is white, and the wings have the blue and white patches like the male. The head is grey with fine stripes, and the bill is brown with orange or yellow marks. Garganeys rarely updend completely when feeding and tend to dip just their head or skim the surface of the water with their bill.Shovelers feed by swimming slowly across water, skimming the surface from side to side with its bill. It sometimes submerges its head. They often feed in groups, swimming in circles to churn up the water and bring food to the surface. The female has grey-brown to tawny barred and spotted plumage, with a white belly, and plain flanks. The head is grey with a dark smudge behind the eye. Goldeneyes feed mainly by diving up to depths of 4 m. They will occasionally dabble and upend in shallow water although this is usually only practised by juveniles.

The female is chocolate brown with paler flanks, and white underparts, and the crest is shorter. She also may have white patches around the base of the bill. The male in eclipse plumage looks like the female.

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