Summary: Decoys have two purposes in life, to attract distant ducks and to help finish real ducks with in range of your shotgun. But are your decoys really painted to be the most visible they can be?
Both black and white can be seen from thousands of feet away. Of the two colors, black can be seen from the greatest distances. Black is such an effective color that some hunters with permanent blinds and thousands of decoys in their spread may have 60-70% of their decoys painted flat black. That's right; they only paint the decoys black.
The visibility of white is not far behind black. If you've ever seen a flock of snow geese in the distance, you know how easily white can been seen. In addition to its high visibility, white also adds "flash" to your decoy spread, especially on the water. As your decoys bob up and down in the water, the white can create "flashes" that can give the appearance of outstretched wings.
In addition to black and white, there are other colors on your decoys that can also be accentuated that will help bring your spread to life. For example, when we paint our decoys, we always try to accentuate additional colors that help our decoys stand out.
When we repaint our drake mallard decoys we use a bright taxicab yellow on the bill. We use a dark burgundy for the breast and wing areas. We use a much lighter and more realistic gray for the body of the decoy and we accentuate the white on the neck and tail. In addition we make sure that the butt is midnight black and the sides of the rump are cream or white. We try to make every decoy we own, whether it's a duck or goose decoy, stand out from the throng of decoys that ducks and geese see on a daily basis.
While some of the colors we use may not be "realistic" these brighter colors have certainly allowed us to increase the numbers of ducks we take home over the years. Remember, ducks may have strong survival instincts, but their brain can not reason like ours can.
Good Luck this hunting season - Jeff & Jeff