Today at my Aunties I went down to the local lagoon seeing sveral bird including little pied cormorants, pacific black ducks, a white faced heron. But I was most curious by a strange substance on the PBD's, the 2 I observed had a strange silvery seemingly liquid substance (pooled?) on their backs and a smattering of it on their heads. My father was adamant it was water but I'd never seen water that silver and certainly never seen it gather on birds backs and heads as it would usually soak in I assume. Any explanations for this? I have never seen it before and was curious to know if there was something wrong with the duck or something in the lagoon that caused this? There has been a recent poisoning of trees in the area becuase some residents want a better view, could this be a result of that? I'm extremely curious and hope someone can help.
Water doesn't soak in to duck's feather because they coat them with oil when they are preening. It would be unusual for water not to run off their feathers and bills within a few seconds however( in my experience). Water does also take on a lot of "colours" depending on theangle that the light is hitting the feathers and the angle you are looking at them from. I would suggest another look to see if the same thing is happening and look at them from different angles.
See Yez
Trev