It is rather solid, glossy, subpellucid and of a uniform fulvous color. The partridge's face and throat have rich fulvous and rufous tints. Male has fulvous brown head and thorax. The shell is pale corneous in color, sometimes fulvous. The sides of the head are more fulvous. Young birds with the "nigripennis" mutation are creamy white with fulvous tipped wings. The underparts vary from fulvous to white; the breast is rufescent. The underparts are a yellowish brown, rich buff or fulvous with broad blackish shaft stripes. The fulvous whistling duck forms a superspecies with the wandering whistling duck. The basic colour of the wings is fulvous. The fulvous tints are exceedingly bright, covering the hind and forelegs. The fulvous whistling duck has a very large range extending across four continents. The fulvous bore a 4.5% mean genetic distance from the barred species. "Fulvous" means reddish-yellow, and is derived from the Latin equivalent "fulvus".