Mandarin ducks, called yuan-yang by the Chinese, are featured often in Oriental art and regarded as symbols of conjugal fidelity and affection. Adult males are striking and unmistakable, with a red bill, a large white crescent above his eye and a reddish face with "whiskers". His breast is purple with double vertical white bars and his flanks are red and have two orange "sails" in the rear. During molting, the males resemble the females but their red bill is their point of difference. The female’s bill is pinkish and she is much less colorful than her mate. She is pale beige with thin white flank stripe and a white under body, and has a white eye ring from where a stripe runs to the back of her head.
