Well, you probably already know how I feel about it, but maybe I have a different slant of what realism is. I've said for a long time that most hunters get ducks in spite of their decoys, not because of them. Very little realism or detail exists in any commercial factory decoys, but they are inexpensive, well sort of.
Your flocked specks no doubt fool lots of geese because they are realistically detailed with accurate field markings and feather surface that geese recognize as a real bird.
Do I think the flocking on the bird on the right is more effective at decoying birds than the one on the left, absolutely. The hideous design work we deal with on a regular basis shows that an anatomically innaccurate decoy can bring birds in, heck I shot lots of ducks over flambeaus over the years. The difference in the details was not a better shape, but a better surface that absorbs light rather than reflecting it. That's an important detail.
Do I think the heavy relief carving most decoy companies put in their designs is accurate or effective, absolutely not. What is natural about that? Ducks are sleek and smooth, the feathering is no deeper than brush strokes.
I've done over 80 decoy designs for various companies over the years and continue to do so. For a long time I have steadfastly refused to put that relief cut feathering in my hen designs, it's not natural, not realistic. We deal with a lot of different brands when we flock and paint decoys and there is nothing more frustrating than painting feather groups laid out inaccurately, which is nearly all of them. The feather groups on the hens I designed did not have relief carving, but was added at the factory in a very inaccurate manner, to the point it is embarrassing.
Given that issue, I understand that when most factory painters aren't as good as my 10 year old grandson, accuracy can be a problem. Not to mention most don't even know the species they are painting. The rub and buff style that factories use is about the only way they can get any kind of pattern into the feathering. Those details make little or no difference to anyone other than a buyer, certainly not a duck.
All of my hunting decoys are flocked, so most of that factory style detail wouldn't show up anyway, however I am fully capable to doing that type of detail I find it unnecessary and unnatural. This pintail and mallard decoy are some I did for decoy companies, but I'd never hunt over them.
The light absorbing quality of flocking more closely resembles feathers as well as their smooth appearance. Detailing flocking is one of the most difficult surfaces to paint, but at the same time it's a forgiving surface, in that it doesn't allow runs and other issues you might face painting a hard surface. The painting detail has really nothing to do with the effectiveness of flocking. Simple blocked in colors with flocking are good enough as long as you have accurate field markings.
Some ducks are more particular than other for instance two hunts a week apart, the first hunt common goldeneye decoys collected three limits, but none of the 300 barrows that passed by decoyed, not one. A week later with only 5 barrows decoys collected 14 barrows goldeneye, only one common goldeneye came in and there were literally thousands of commons.
I also put out a single wigeon decoy on a hunt that was only flocked the major colors, no airbrush. No one could pick it out at 20 yards in the decoys, so I'm reasonably sure that fancy detail doesn't really matter. Black is the most important color and there is nothing blacker than flocking. White is a close second.
Do I think the details matter, it all depends on your idea of details. I paint the pretty on my decoys because I can and it's fun, not because it's necessary. The pretty are details that most only see in hand, maybe if a duck is swimming around in your decoys and wondering, why isn't she talking to me does some of that detail matter, probably not even then.
If I was designing a decoy that wasn't going to be flocked it would have no more detail than this and be painted like this, but i'd really rather flock it black, brown and grey and it would be more effective.
