Looking at the bag limits-I am guessing it takes time and experience to be able to ID a duck species-I am concerned with shooting too many of the wrong kinds!

Just takes time and practice, your eyes will get better the more you hunt.

It takes time but you will get better at recognizing them also there's apps that help if you had a iPhone or iPad download duck master it's a game but you have to recognize birds to move on it helped me a lot!

The first concern is to get in to too many birds that IDing actually becomes a problem...

This.

There are probably plenty of other books, but I carry this one in my blind bag: Waterfowl Identification: The LeMaster Method. In addition to general pictures, the book includes pictures of the size, coloring, and shape of different ducks' bills, and you can match the bill to the picture after recovering a duck.

https://www.amazon.com/Waterfowl-Identification-LeMaster-Method-Richard/dp/0811729826

big duck season is easy... Divers are easy to spot, redheads are picked out easy but small limit.. cans are also... can hens vs redhead hens can be a worry the first few times ...... wood duck yell at you, mallards laugh at you, pintail make you dizzy, gadwall are the worst duck callers in the world and have white speck on wings that is easy to pick out... a duck that looks like a wooduck but no whistle, and decoys to easy is a merganser.. widgeon flutter with a slower pace to the wing and usually whistle constantly... geese are those things you see flying a few miles up and honk a lot... teal was the group that just flew by you without notice... spoonys were the big teal in that group... goldeneye, bufflehead are made up stories I hear of all the time... whistler ducks are the ones in the lakehouse yards eating bread, blue bill are big jacks, jacks have no fear and let you know real quick who can shoot well, ruddy duck are colorful jacks, coots are like a brown bag special, and those little ducks you see swimming underwater all the time aint ducks... don't shoot those man...

◦Mottled Duck I don't see these unless I get an invite on the coast.. couldn't tell you look like park duck

Know the limits... don't shoot if you aint sure.. youll catch on

http://wildlife.tamu.edu/wildlifemanagement/waterfowl/

word to the wise

Pretty much spot on... I was laughing my butt off while reading this because it is 100% truth and pretty much how I identify birds.

Great response!!!

Do some scouting so you know whats there in your spot.

This book is awesome! My brother n law got it for me as a gift. Great guide. Barnes and Nobles also has a pocket reference for waterfowl. Good pictures.

DU has an app with duck ID

I don't care what anyone says, you are never gonna learn until you get out there and start splashing them in the deeks. But you can pretty much eliminate, or greatly reduce, your risk of shooting over your limit of a particular species by shooting only singles. ID in the air best you can, but once in hand, confirm species identification with 100% confidence, use LeMaster Method if need be (keep in blind bag). When you reach your limit of a species, say you shoot 2 pintails, your hunt is over, don't pull the trigger any more until you learn to ID in air with 100% confidence. Do all this and your risk of shooting over your limit is probably better than all the other barneys on the water that think they are expert duck IDers. My very first duck hunt I shot one duck. GM was at access point, he said "what you shoot?" I said "a teal". He said "no, that's a wood duck hen." After lecturing me about responsible hunting, he told me about the LeMaster Method. Then he said, where is your "type 2 permit?" I said, "whats that?". lol.

Here some other tips with ID'n in air:

* First of all, you have to be able to ID a duck (vs a water turkey, or a crane, etc) in the air, with 100% confidence. Don't pull the trigger untill you can do this. Wingbeat and speed is key.

* When ducks are 200 to 300 yards out, study the way the flock works. All species work differently. Red heads stay in formation and stay level. Gadddies all over out of formation, and at any point 20% of the flock will be twisting sideways... Teal fly low.. Pintails fly with grace... Mallards stay in formation but slow wing beat. Many times you can ID them 200 to 300 yards out.

* When flock gets close, try to focus your eyes on one bird, look for the biggest/darkest one (drakes).. Many times all you will see is the silhouette, either the sun is not out, or the sun is behind the duck. When sun is out and angle is right where sun shines right on duck, you are looking at color/plumage of drakes.. Start with the head, mallards are easy. So are pintails, my 2 favorite ducks. Most ducks you can ID looking at the head. Then look look at wing if needed, wigeon when they are working, they tend to fly directly away, bank doing a 180 to come back. When they are banking, and sun is to your back, spotting the big white patch on drake wigeon is easy, this is about 100 out, stay focused on that one bird.

* When birds are close and working, put the call away, and listen. Many times you will ID ducks without even seeing them. Nothing better then when the ducks are working, you got your head down, birds are behind you, not sure of species, and you hear the mallard drake "I'm-comming-in" call. All ducks make different sounds, sitting and flying. Get a duck commander CD, he takes you through all the sounds. Many times I hear the ducks before I see them, they are behind me, or I'm on the THF lol.