Tail up, or Tail down?

Bill Burruss

Bill Burruss

Well-known member
Hello. I’ve been working on some Scoter and Bluebill dekes, and have been going back and forth on whether to go tail up, or tail down . Found plenty of pics of both, but have not found any explanation of what, if any, body language this conveys. Any duck experts out there know if tail position conveys any meaning? For the Scoters, I made 3 up and 2 down for variety. The locals were more than happy to come in to them, but, they also seem to decoy to mallard dekes, too.

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-Bill
 
IMHO either way is right but as a general rule my approach is Low head tail up and high head tail down. In other words a bird that is relaxed will have their tail up and high head bird would be ready to shove off or push off. BUT really you can see it both ways so anyway you want to go will be fine.

Willy
 
Low tails seem to ride rougher water better. as the tail gives you more surface on the water. Personally, I feel the Michigan bobtail rides rough water better than any other typical design, but most decoy makers want to add a tail to give the decoy more of a finished look.
 
I have no idea about the tails, but they look like ducks to me. What did you make them out of? Burlap?

Dave
 
You did a nice job. For all diver style blocks I'd go with the low tail, or no tail, just round it down to the bottom, a little more stability and no tails to break off.
Probably doesn't matter, they'll stool to black lobster bouys, plus, by the time they notice that nice tail..they should be dead.
But they look nice to the rest of us, :)
 
Willy,
Thanks. I was just trying to figure out what the body language was and what would be best to attract birds. Like you say, the incoming bird is the ultimate judge!

-Bill
 
Dave,
Thanks. The scoters are "carved" from pink foam board and covered in burlap/tile mastic. Heads are from Toledo Decoy and I think 2-part foam. I need resiliant diver dekes as demonstrated by this E. Allen Buffy : )

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Oh well, this was an easy fix and he was due for a repaint, anyhow.

-Bill
 
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