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2 Bird ID's Please UK (1 Viewer)

C

Chilt

Well-known member
Wondering if anyone can help me!

No.1 Either Lesser Black Backed Gull or Yellow Legged Gull?
No.2 Cross Bred Mallard??

Thanks for any help
Chilt
 

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Wow , that´s an odd duck. Wonder where this escaped from?

First it is a leucistic bird , Look at the primary color!

Second, it is a hybrid. The reddish brown coloration and the white neckring are like in Pintail x Mallard , compare with this one:

https://live.staticflickr.com/2367/2419922174_45ceb4bec5_b.jpg

Also tertial shape and general pattern coud fit to a leucistic mallard x Pintail hybrid.

what doesn´t fit to this cross is the weird black bill and the weird head pattern.

some leucistic mallards can have paler cheeks and lack the green head gloss
like this one:
http://www.ofo.ca/gallery/photo/id/Archive-1-24-10085/checklist

But the pale cheek together with the black neck ring and the black bill would differ from that cross

It can however occur both

in Gadwall x Pintail
https://live.staticflickr.com/598/22600368298_08060a0442_b.jpg

and in Gadwall x Mallard
https://search.macaulaylibrary.org/catalog?taxonCode=x00420

so are we dealing with a captive produced 3 species hybrid here (involving mallard, pintail, gadwall)?
 
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Heres some more photos if any of these help, it wasnt one on it own. There were about 3 of them i think!

Thanks
Chilt
 

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Chilt said:
Heres some more photos if any of these help, it wasnt one on it own. There were about 3 of them i think!

Thanks
Chilt
Click to expand...

So a whole brood?!
odd things. Maybe released by somebody?

Mallard and Northern pintail are clearly in the mix; otherwise the breast color and the shape of the white neckring could not be explained.

However the coloration of the tail feathers, scapulars, tertials and flanks would be explained if a color variant Bahama pintail (like the rear bird in this photo) was involved:
https://www.harteman.nl/files/PA230147.JPG

So Steve may have been on to something with his idea!

Still the black neckring and the apparnetly all black bill are odd....

I would like to see a closeup of head pattern and bill pattern if possible ?

also a comparsion of the 3 different birds if possible?
 
Stirred by a recent post above this one, could there be Paradise Shelduck in this bird, accounting for the black bill?
 
While not out of the realm of possibilities, szuch crosses are very rare , + extremely unlikely here;
There are no other traits indicating a possible shelduck parentage
 
I think so ....
And I think the coloration makes a hybrid involving Bahama pintail (This color variant: https://file2.hpage.com/013618/68/bilder/cache_2446208082.jpg), Northern Pintail and Mallard most likely.

We had a case in Germany where a female hybrid Chiloe wigeon x Bahama pintail paired with a male Mallard and rased some young.

Here a male from this 3 species cross:
https://www.club300.de/gallery/photo1.php?id=27879

Here a female from this 3 species cross:
https://www.club300.de/gallery/photo1.php?id=27880
https://www.club300.de/gallery/photo1.php?id=27881

here the female parent of the 3 species cross:
https://www.club300.de/gallery/photo1.php?id=27882
 
I think we may have to consider also another solution here:

these are photos of what is obviously the same or another of these hybrids (Chilt mentioning there were 3 of them)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125514964@N04/49244404296/in/photolist-2i8YBHn-2i2yrKo

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125514964@N04/49317019483/in/photolist-2i8YBHn-2i2yrKo

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126190697@N04/49357251181/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/trev4/49398705313/


So if we consider this to be an Intersex female rather than a male?

Intersex plumage in Northern pintails looks like this:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/101469605@N02/12527141923/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/14195020@N08/14364914388/

I see some similarities to the hybrids there (Capped appearance, flank barring) , but the breast color and shape of the white neckring would mean there is mallard in there. However, if these are intersex plumaged birds , this may be another explanation for the brownish hue ...

Difficult to explain then is still the straight pintail feather in the tail, in hybrids with mallard this is normally curved upwards:
https://www.google.com/search?q=hyb...nAhXNGewKHVGjBHsQsAR6BAgIEAE&biw=1920&bih=916

Whatever it is, definitely not the standard Mallard x Pintail drake....
 
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