uk hybrid duck (1 Viewer)

[vwxyzen]

obviously got a lot of Gadwall in it but is it possible to say what else?

 

[James Emerson]

obviously got a lot of Gadwall in it but is it possible to say what else?

Domestic Mallard by the looks of it, the dark colouration with white on the front seems to be quite a common combination.

Regards,
James

 

[Adam W]

I cant quite work out where the dark sides come from but the front end and back end seem to be a pretty good mixture of Gadwall and Pintail.

 

[DarkFireFalcon]

I agree with Domestic Mallard, crossed with some sort other domestic duck. It's far to large and heavy chested to be anything wild. Any range of combinations is possible with domestic mallards, many of them have muscovy genes and other odd domestic duck genes, which express themselves in odd ways.

 

[Dave Appleton]

This is just a domestic variant of Mallard. It's 100% Mallard - no Gadwall, no Pintail, no anything other than Mallard.

 

[Foxy]

I don't think it is '100%' mallard, there is an oddity about the shape that doesn't look quite right for a straight Mallard although that coloration is comon enough; I would still say it is a domestic cross, not a wild one, as DarkFireFalcon suggests

 

[fugl]

Agree with Dave Appleton: just a domestic Mallard of the common "white-bibbed" type.

 

[stonechat1]

This is just a domestic variant of Mallard. It's 100% Mallard - no Gadwall, no Pintail, no anything other than Mallard.

:t:

 

[stevethehydra]

It does seem to have a rather Gadwall-like bill shape, and the fact that it's with Gadwall makes me wonder if it might be possible for a domestic Mallard x Gadwall hybrid to look like this, but it's far more likely that it's just platyrhynchos of the "bibbed" type (effectively a colour phase in many, esp. urban, Mallard populations - I've seen broods of ducklings containing both "bibbed" and wild-type individuals).

 

[PhilW]

Mallard x Aylesbury farm yard special

 

[stonechat1]

Mallard x Aylesbury farm yard special

Please explain where the Aylesbury - part is in that duck, I´m keen to learn.
Isn´t a Blue Swedish Duck more likely?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chickadeenest/7168560836/

 

[Tideliner]

I have seen dozens of similar mallard x domestic hybrids ( they are quite common in Norfolk ) and as Dave and others have already stated its a domestic mallard type, no gadwall or pintail in it anywhere.

 

[Dave Appleton]

Just to explain a bit, nearly all domestic ducks are descended from Mallards. The exceptions are Muscovy Ducks. Mallards (domestic or not) may hybridise with Muscovy Ducks (domestic usually) but their hybrid offspring are not fertile. Thus a domestic duck that isn't a Muscovy Duck and isn't a first-generation Muscovy Duck x Mallard hybrid is a Mallard. Selective breeding of domestic Mallards has produced a large variety of different "breeds" of Mallard which vary enormously in plumage, bare parts, size and structure but they are all 100% Mallard and not hybrids between Mallards and any other species. A cross between two domestic breeds of Mallard is better described as a crossbreed than a hybrid. People who keep ducks seem to operate on a different taxonomy to birders, treating different "pure" breeds (e.g. Saxony, Aylesbury, etc., that are all 100% Mallard) in just the same way as different species, and as a result they don't differentiate between a crossbreed and a hybrid between two species, so the terms get used interchangeably (I'm sure there are exceptions, but that's my experience). Those of us who recognise a difference between two domestic breeds of the same species and two natural species find it preferable to reserve the term 'hybrid' for a cross that has two species in its ancestry, which is not the case for domestic ducks (except the occasional infertile Mallard x Muscovy).

For breeders, a pure breed is only identified by looking at its offspring. Mutations are such that a domestic duck that is a cross-breed may appear identical to a pure-breed, the difference is that if you mate two pure-breeds the offspring will all look like that breed (except in very rare instances) whereas if you mate two cross-breeds or a cross-breed with a pure-breed then the chances are you'll get variation in the appearance of their young, even if both parents looked like the pure-breed. For this reason unless the Mallards have been kept and bred in a controlled environment they are extremely unlikely to be pure-breeds - they are almost certainly cross-breeds even if they resemble one or other breed. As some domestic breeds are very similar to wild Mallards you can't really tell if one parent is a wild Mallard or not. Domestic variants are not as stable as different species and the appearance of their offspring is not as predictable - you cannot look at a domestic duck, see clear characteristics that resemble breed X and breed Y and assume it's got breed X and breed Y in its ancestry. That's why I think it's safer to describe any Mallard that shows signs of a domestic heritage as simply a domestic variant of Mallard. Leave it to the people who keep and breed them in controlled environments to call them Aylesbury or Blue Swedish or whatever.

Of course these domestic variants of Mallards do hybridise sometimes with other species, but such hybrids are relatively rare. Don't underestimate the amount of variation that exists within the domestic variants of Mallard - if some throw up features that remind you of Gadwall or Pintail etc. then in all probability it has absolutely nothing to do with Gadwall or Pintail, it's just part of their (un)natural variation.