Mottle Duck and female Mallard difference ? (1 Viewer)

[Xelioszzapporro!!]

How can I tell apart a Mottle Duck with a female Mallard. To me they look the same. I can't tell the difference....
If you fellas know how to tell them apart , then I would appreciate it a lot to share here. Cause I want to learn

This is a Mallard female





And this is a Mottle duck couple...




@Bewick @aeshna5 @Earnest lad @THE_FERN @Jeff Hopkins @Welsh Peregrine @Stephen Dunstan @jurek @Southern Viking @TheBlackGrouse @nartreb @Joern Lehmhus @foresttwitcher

 

[Bewick]

Mottled duck's have a distinctive black spot at the base of bill, the lower neck has a clean separation of plain pale neck/head and the mottled darker plumage from neck and body + blue speculum bordered with black instead of white and black.

Edit- Also primaries do not usually extend past upper-tail coverts as they typically do in mallards.

 

[Julie50]

Hi, we do not have Mottle Ducks in the UK. But I did google this might help?

Mottled Ducks

Mottled Ducks

myfwc.com

 

[nartreb]

Do you have a book, like Sibley? Or an online guide like Cornell's All About Birds?

This is a difficult comparison, made harder by the fact that hybridisation is common. Also, in some locations you'll want to distinguish American Black Duck, which is also not easy.
Here are some indicators to look for in females:
1) Dark spot at the gape (where the mouth opens at the base of the bill) - more visible in Mottled than either Mallard or ABD.
2) head color - mottled tends to have very pale cheeks, with little or no grey streaking, contrasting with the body. Mallard heads are often paler than the body, but make a less obvious contrast. ABD head makes a very obvious contrast with the body, because the body is dark.
3) speculum - Mottled have weak or no white edge on the speculum, mallard has bold white edge; ABD has no white edge
4) tail edge - usually bright white in mallard, more often buffy or brown in mottled, and downright dark in ABD.

 

[raymie]

The female in the second photo looks to be a hybrid with Mallard. Please see this for tips: https://s3.amazonaws.com/is-ebird-w...TczMDc1MTg0OS40NDUuMC4xNzMwNzUxODQ5LjYwLjAuMA..

 

[Xelioszzapporro!!]

Thank you fellas a lot for your helpful points. After reading Bewick's and narterb's points I put side to side and compared multiple Mallards with Mottled Ducks , indeed the differences are as they said. I will check the links that Julie and raymie posted too. But tomorrow. Have a great night everybody!