Frisky Tufties, nasal saddles and schemochromes

There are Tufted Ducks at Stover Country Park. They are a little wary but I manage to get a few photographs:

I’ve always though that their heads were purple, but with iridescence the colour isn’t caused by pigment, it’s caused by the microscopic structure of the feathers interfering with light. The structures are called schemochromes. It looks as cool as it sounds:

At this angle the head looks green.

There’s a female here as well.

I look closely and see that it has a nasal ‘saddle’. It’s there because of a scientific study and because you can’t read leg rings when ducks have them in the water so much of the time.

Taking a closer look at it, I want to find the scientist who did this and put a large nasal saddle on them.

I just hope the results are worth it.

What do you think?