Label the Parts of a Duck for Kids

All 11 parts on the diagram

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Start here: 7 main parts 7

Head A male mallard's head is a glossy bottle green. The female's is streaky brown.
Eye The eye, on the side of the head.
Bill The broad, flat beak. Its edges carry rows of fine comb-like plates that strain food from water and mud.
Breast The front of the body. On a male mallard it is purple-tinged brown.
Wing The wing, folded along the side. Duck wings are short, pointed and very strong, and need fast, steady beats to fly.
Tail The short tail at the back of the body.
Webbed feet Feet with skin stretched between the three front toes, used as paddles. They sit far back on the body.

The drake's markings: 4 4

White collar A narrow white ring on the male. It divides his green head and neck from his brown breast.
Speculum A patch of blue or purple feathers on the wing. It is edged in white on both sides. Both males and females have one.
Belly The underside of the body. A male mallard's is pale grey.
Curled tail feather The curled centre feather of the tail, found only on males. It is sometimes called the drake feather.

How this list was compiled: Read 2026-09-27. (1) Wikipedia, Mallard, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallard : the breeding male's head is glossy bottle-green, with a white collar between head and neck and a brown breast tinged purple, a pale grey belly and grey-brown wings; both sexes have a speculum of white-bordered blue or purple feathers on the wing; the male's centre tail feather is curled; the female is mostly mottled brown. (2) Wikipedia, Duck, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck : the bill is usually broad with serrated pectens, well defined in filter-feeding species; legs set far back on the body, with webbed feet in aquatic species; wings short, pointed and very strong, needing fast continuous strokes in flight. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site by script, 2026-09-27. Own work, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

To label the parts of a duck, write a name on the line for each of eleven numbers. Ten are on a male mallard standing side-on, and the last is on a webbed foot drawn close up below him.

Read the full guide

Duck worksheet word bank

In alphabetical order: belly, bill, breast, curled tail feather, eye, head, speculum, tail, webbed feet, white collar, wing. Two pairs of lines get swapped. Lines 9 and 10 are the tail and the small black curl above it, and lines 6 and 7 are the whole folded wing and the small patch on it.

Seven names first, for a younger class

The seven main parts make a sheet of their own under Start from, numbered 1 to 7: head, eye, bill, breast, wing, tail and webbed feet. The other four are white collar, speculum, belly and curled tail feather.

When marking, beak is right on line 3 and chest on line 5.

Questions and answers

What is a male duck called?

A drake. A female is called a duck, or a hen by people who study birds, and a young duck still in its down is a duckling. The mallard on this sheet is a drake.

Does a male mallard always have a green head?

Not all year. In summer a drake molts into eclipse plumage, which looks more like the brown of the female. He returns to his breeding colors when the summer molt ends.

What color is a mallard's bill?

A male's is yellowish orange with a black tip. A female's is usually darker, from black through to mottled brown and orange.

What is the comb along the edge of a duck's bill called?

A pecten. Besides trapping food as water squirts out of the side of the bill, it is used to preen the feathers and to hold slippery food.