Definitely mix species and different brands of decoys. For one, it becomes more realistic and appealing. As mentioned above, pintails, and especially bluebill decoys add a very helpful amount of white that can be seen from long distances and helps to attract birds. Just set out a few and go a long ways off, you' ll see what I mean. Puddlers intermingle a lot when feeding. On every trip we have mallards, pintails, woodies, teal, and bluebills out on the water. We also use feeder and sleeper dekes to make it more interesting.

Just remember, we often give a duck or goose way to much credit concerning their brain power. Do you think a duck really thinks to itself, " Hey, those species of ducks don' t sit together" or " That duck is much bigger than that other one" . When you think about it its ridiculous. They see decoys on the water, they look at them, mostly to see if they are moving, as ducks are highly aware of movement (both good and bad) and they decide whether they want to join them or not.

Bad camo, movement, and wrong calling scares many more ducks than decoy spreads.