Individual Identification - Nasal Saddles

We often follow individual ducks to learn about production or survival. Nasal saddles are markers that give ducks unique letters and shape markers.

Jake Bushaw and the crew were recently busy preparing for 2026 field work by making saddles.

The plastic starts flat, is painted, heated and then formed while hot around a model bill.

The saddle is secured on the duck’s bill by a thin rod that goes through the existing nose holes in the bill.

-Frank