Waterfowl taste opinions

[bc sportsman]

What is your view on the taste between the following:
1) Canada Geese
2) Snow Geese
3) Ross Geese

What about the various ducks:
4) Marsh ducks such as Mallards, Pintails, Teals, Harlequins etc
9) Divers such as Canvasbacks, Goldeneyes, other ducks

Never had wild ducks or geese before. If there are some species that just don't taste that great then I prefer knowing so that I don't hunt them.

Thanks guys

[ROEBUCK]

i enjoy both snow geese and canada geese, i prefer dabbling ducks to divers ,you cant beat a nice plump roasted mallard ,in my opinion any wild game is better than tasteless meats from supermarkets

[Dirty]

They all taste the same it's called pepperoni.

[Ian F.]

There are very few bad duck, but there are a hell of a lot of bad duck cooks!

Canvasback was worth 50 times all other birds during market gunning, there is a reason for this, hands down best.

Next for me would be wood duck, then teal

I find Canada, mallard, gadwall, pintail all about the same

Snow is mild as are redheads and bluebills

Stronger ducks include goldeneye's, scoters and harlies

The only birds I'm not fans of are RB mergs and Common mergs and Old squaw, Used to shoot OS for dog training, they are perfect for that, but being between dogs haven't bothered.

The secret to duck is cook it rare and treat like red meat and not like duck!

Ian

[bc sportsman]

Thanks Ian and Daniel. I appreciate hearing from both of you.

[Bow Walker]

We used to call Mergansers "Double Enders" for a very good reason. Another endearing term that we used was "Shitters" cause that's what they tasted like.

Canada geese are great, Snows as well. As Ian says - it's all in the cooking. My first wife tried to make Duck A L'Orange when we were first married.

Well, the acid in the fresh oranges reacted with the stronger tasting Goldeneye and ..............well let's just say that we found something else to do besides eat supper.

There were three of us brothers who were all hunting together for a few years. We would duck hunt, deer hunt, and fish for fresh caught, shrimp fed Coho then fill the freezers. Come Christmas time Mom 'n Dad used to hold an open house on Boxing Day, for everyone who was interested - family and friends.

The fare was leftover turkey, baked ham, and a wide sampling of the game that the 'kids' provided. I was into scuba diving at the time and in addition to the game meat, I used to contribute abalone, scallops, red snapper, ling cod and what ever else. Somehow there weren't a lot of leftovers from Boxing Day.

Ahh, those were the good ole days...........

[MichelD]

I am blessed with a woman who loves to eat waterfowl to the point that she's the one who encouraged me to buy a shotgun and get bird hunting, and she plucks and cleans my ducks as well as cooks them like a chef in a five star hotel.

(oh yeah, I do my share if I have a lucky day)

Like Daniel said, a plump roasted mallard is succulent and hard to beat, Canada is excellent as well.

Snows are fine in my opinion, but not up to the standard of Canada geese.

[4ptbuck]

I like ducks the best, Mallard. But there isn't a whole lot of meat.
Snows would rank #2. With Canadas as third.

I don't find much of a difference between the taste of Canadas and Snows. The difference I find is in the tenderness. In hunting snows, I end up with a lot more 'grays' or younger birds, as opposed to pass shooting Canadas.

[Elkhound]

mmmmmmmmmm birds. I really need to do more waterfowling.

[Marc]

You may find that wild duck tast a bit like liver. It's a dark meat. You either like it or you don't. My wife will eat Canada Goose ut she wont go near duck, she finds them to gamey.

I agree with Ian, golden eye has much to be desired. It's a soft mushy type of meat, same with buffle head.