Mallard Hybrids (1 Viewer)

[Catherine3678]

Sorting through my pics ...

Am I right in thinking that the one pretty pair are Mallard x Pintail ...
And the photos of the ringless Mallards were taken at different times ... I'm thinking they must be a hybrid, but with what?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Stephen Dunstan]

None of these look like Mallard x Pintail.

Regards,

Stephen.

 

[cavan wood]

No duck expert here, but although the "ringless" male looks a little suspicious, I wouldn't have hesitated to call all the rest full mallards. But as I said, I'm no duck expert.

Scott

 

[Catherine3678]

I'm not a duck expert either but am hoping to become better acquainted with what's what in the flock. I read somewhere that the blond "eyebrow" in the mallard hen indicated pintail, and I did notice that their tails don't look quite like most of the other mallards' tails ... but there are quite a few variances amongst these mallards. The regular flock has definate Mallards, American Black Ducks, and definate Mallard x American Black Ducks. A possible Pintail was identified earlier ... so I know that Pintails do come in contact with some of these Mallards. If indeed it's pure Mallard, that's really nice! Looking forward to next year's chicks.

......................

From the larger pic I have, I cropped out the tail and fully saturated the colours ... the back appears to have much more green in it than his peers ... mind you, light does play tricks when it comes to feathers! I also found another pic of a collarless Mallard ... cropped out a pic of the more common black tails that this flock has ... and gee, found this really wierd looking "duck" in a photo ... "any guesses"???

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Definitely all mallards,

for some hybrids mallard x pintail see these links:

http://www.bobsteelephoto.com/Species/mall_nopi.html

http://www.terra.es/personal7/jidies/platyacuta.htm

http://www.biology.eku.edu/kos/hybridphoto.html

http://www.peregrineprints.com/bird/HybridMALLxNOPI.htm

I am going to look for a link with photos of a female, but the general look of the female hybrid is in between the body shape of the two species, the head pattern is much less contrasting than in mallard and the bill is greyish with some black on the culmen... also the speculum is always green...

Best Regards,

Jörn

 

[Ben M]

Is there any significance in the lack of white ring around the neck?

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

I do not think so... I can not exclude that such a bird may have had a black duck as a distant ancestor (The ringless mallard drake "locks" also seem not that long and curled which might be another hint, and the ringless mallard in the first pic seems to have brown in the flanks), but that needn´t to be so...

I´d call the bird in question a Mallard

 

[gerdwichers8]

Jorn, the hybrids you posted, the birds originate from collections or does such hybridisation occur in a natural environment?

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Hi Gerd,

The links I posted, as far as I know the birds were observed in the wild.

among Anas ducks this seems to be one of the commoner hybrids.There are some more photos of this hybrid combination in the web, (photos of such birds from Finland,the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Norway).

In Germany I have 2 times seen a male Pintail paired with a female mallard.

one of these males was a pinioned bird with a breeders ring on one leg (So very likely not of wild origin), but the other one was very likely a wild bird as it was not ringed or pinioned and much more wary than any of the mallard group it was in, also more wary than the mallard female it was paired with.

I think this is not that astonishing as much of the display of these two species is very similar.

 

[Gentoo]

Is there any significance in the lack of white ring around the neck?

I see plenty of Mallards every day with varying sizes of neck rings and some without. In some areas wild Mallards have bred extensively with domestics and have produced some interesting looking wild birds.

 

[Gentoo]

Hi Gerd,

The links I posted, as far as I know the birds were observed in the wild.

among Anas ducks this seems to be one of the commoner hybrids.There are some more photos of this hybrid combination in the web, (photos of such birds from Finland,the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Norway).

In Germany I have 2 times seen a male Pintail paired with a female mallard.

one of these males was a pinioned bird with a breeders ring on one leg (So very likely not of wild origin), but the other one was very likely a wild bird as it was not ringed or pinioned and much more wary than any of the mallard group it was in, also more wary than the mallard female it was paired with.

I think this is not that astonishing as much of the display of these two species is very similar.

I agree, Mallards and Pintails hybridize fairly frequently. The only reason I haven't seen it where I am is because the Pintails are migratory and the Mallards are not.

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Here are some more male hybrids mallard x pintail

http://www.pbase.com/image/57934281

http://www.pbase.com/image/57586547

Here a very colourful hybrid mallard x american black Duck (So likely to be a backcross to mallard in my opinion-but note this is without the white neck ring-I guess abackcross of such abird with a mallard would produce a very mallardlike bird, but possibly without neck ring)

http://www.pbase.com/image/53110891


This here is in my opinion a female Mallard x Pintail:

http://users.utu.fi/hlehto/photo/hybrid/acrexacu/442_4280_osa.jpg

http://users.utu.fi/hlehto/photo/hybrid/acrexacu/444_4420_osa.jpg

http://users.utu.fi/hlehto/photo/hybrid/acrexacu/444_4422_osa.jpg

http://users.utu.fi/hlehto/photo/hybrid/acrexacu/444_4444_osa.jpg

The female pictured above is discussed here,as the observer thinks it could also be a hybrid Teal x Pintail (But I´d fully agree with the idea of Mallard x Pintail for this one- interestingly this is a banded Bird- would have been great if the band had been readable...this could have clarified if it was a wild bird or not):

http://listserv.arizona.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0602a&L=birdwg01&T=0&P=1800

 

[Catherine3678]

Thanks!

Thank you all for clarifying this for me. They certainly don't look like the Mallard x Pintails in these photos so I shall call them Mallards.

And the entire flock is 'terrorized' by one bully Hooded Merganser! He was back Nov. 28th and was quite determined that they should stay on land. He didn't succeed 100% but was very entertaining with his attempts.