I saw my first male Pochard on Roath Park Lake three weeks ago and was charmed by his handsome colours and markings. During my frequent subsequent walks around the lake, I keep seeing him and always stop to say hello and, as he comes very close to the lake edge, to take more photos. As I only ever see him on his own each time, albeit in different places around the lake, it never occurred to me that there was more than one bird … until today, when I looked more closely at my photos. Can you see the differences?
Each of these birds – it seems there have been at least three! – has different markings on its bill, and this patterning of dark and light pigmentation on the bill is the main way to distinguish individual ducks of many species when conducting field surveys and research. So, if ducks used ID cards, they wouldn’t need finger prints or retina scans, they’d need bill prints!
Perhaps he’s thinking, ‘Well, yes, did you really think we all looked the same?’.
earthstar 
That was very observant of you! We tend to think the same way about birds that visit our gardens, assuming the same ones visit all the time. I remember a survey done of differently-ringed blackbirds showed something like 53 individuals visited one garden on the same day.
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Thanks, Theresa. I was reading about how to tell a male and female apart (not pochards – they’re easy, but another bird) and it occurred to me that there should be a way to recognise individuals. Always learning!
I’m surprised there were 53 individual blackbird visiting one garden though – I thought they were very territorial so wouldn’t allow other birds in their garden.
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