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duck in Lancashire (1 Viewer)

I am a litte reluctant to answer, because I was just fooled by a pitfall pictue before, but I havent seen a Mandarin with such a head/bill profile before.
Is it an artefact by distortion?

I agree with Nutcracker that the head pattern is wrong for a Wood Duck.

Also: the colouration isnt 100% perfekt (where is the white area on the loreal are?) but I have seen some Mandarins with aberant colouration in zoos/aviculture before. But I am not sure I always made a correct ID.

But I cant help: such a long bill?
I think its time to call for Jörn or other experts
 
I thought that a drake is unlikely because they have a either a red bill or the red shines through a dark bill, like here:
https://club300.de/gallery/photo.php?id=65140
https://club300.de/gallery/photo.php?id=65141
(taken at Prenzlau, NE_Germany 03-07-2017).

But I must admit that I doesnt look at variation at Mandarins in zoos closely, the above said words are result of a few drake Mandarins (escapes and birds of the population in Germany).

I must admit, that I havent learnend from the thread with the zitting cisticola before: on my screen, the bill looks to long and darkish with a pink-flesh base.
And the too rounded/oval feathering on the bill base, not so straight as in Mandarin and the base of the bill reaches to high up at the forehead.
So I believe in this picture and dont get the feeling of a Mandarin.

Or is the wrong head/bill profile (at least for me) result of the picture quality?
And is the bill colour not real?
So Im hoping for more pictures!
 
Alexander Stöhr said:
I thought that a drake is unlikely because they have a either a red bill or the red shines through a dark bill, ...
Click to expand...
This pic looks like it was taken in very bad light - I tried brightening it in photoshop and bumping the saturation right up high, and then some red / dark pink does show on the bill (but then, all sorts of other colours also show up on its body :-O)
 

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Nutcracker said:
This pic looks like it was taken in very bad light - I tried brightening it in photoshop and bumping the saturation right up high, and then some red / dark pink does show on the bill (but then, all sorts of other colours also show up on its body :-O)
Click to expand...

That's probably more to do with the camera than anything else. Here's a Gannet I snapped recently with the saturation bumped high.
 

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aeshna5 said:
Maybe, but then see post 9!
Click to expand...
No possible confusion over species, only over sex & age.

Note Mandarin Ducks have a different chromosome count to other ducks (2n=90; a quirk of evolution), which makes hybridisation with other ducks effectively impossible. So hybrid options can be discounted :t:
 
Nutcracker said:
No possible confusion over species, only over sex & age.

Note Mandarin Ducks have a different chromosome count to other ducks (2n=90; a quirk of evolution), which makes hybridisation with other ducks effectively impossible. So hybrid options can be discounted :t:
Click to expand...

Maybe not for you or me, but one poster did allude to it being something else from a collection- that was what I alluded to. Mandarin is a bird I see every week here so pretty obvious to me what it was!
 
Interestingly the etymology of Aix is from (as usual) ancient Greek and was termed (allegedly) by Aristotle no less to describe an ‘unknown diving bird’:t:

Laurie -
 
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