Mysterious duck eludes bird ID guide (1 Viewer)

[hypercolius]

Returned from a trip to Lakenheath. I saw this duck there, a picture attached below. Using my ID guide I was able to rule out...every single UK duck. The only one which even remotely approaches is a male goosander, though to be honest is nowhere close. I would love some help!

 

[Microtus]

It's a male Mallard, of a domestic variety.

 

[nartreb]

Mallard (of domestic breed) is correct, but I don't know how Microtus can tell whether it's male or female. Domestic breeds can have plumage that completely hides the usual gender clues. One of the clues that still works with most domestic breeds (since it doesn't depend on color) is that male mallards have curly feathers over their tails. I can't see any in this photo, but that might just be because the photo is a little blurry.

 

[Microtus]

Domestic breeds can have plumage that completely hides the usual gender clues.

I forgot that, thanks!

 

[lou salomon]

we actually clssify these very common "park types" as hybrids between mallards and domestic ducks (of mallard origin). pretty sure it is a female type though, since the blackies with white breasts usually are females (and lack the curly tail feathers). i also think that the chick belongs to her.

 

[MJB]

we actually clssify these very common "park types" as hybrids between mallards and domestic ducks (of mallard origin). pretty sure it is a female type though, since the blackies with white breasts usually are females (and lack the curly tail feathers). i also think that the chick belongs to her.

I rather like the term 'Muddy Ducks', because the ancetry is unclear...
MJB

 

[Butty]

The offspring of anything that breeds with a domestic duck is... a domestic duck.

 

[lou salomon]

so, a greylag with white patches but structurally like a wild one, is a domestic goose?

 

[Butty]

How would you know it isn't?

 

[lou salomon]

domestic geese (and ducks) have a fat butt.

 

[Butty]

There you're making your own definition of domestic duck and domestic goose.

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

I agree with both, please remember that this forum is about Identification. I think that the term "domestic" is used here as an IDable form of a duck with Mallard ancestry (with a fat butt as one of the features pointing to such a bird from an ID-point of view). they can look weird/unusual/strange and brings IDproblems in pictures and in the field. I remember a white patterned farmyard Duck present for some time in my homepatch in SW-Germany, that in certain situations gave the jizz of a male Shoveler, when swimming among other Mallards or Gadwalls. I have thought a few times: hey, there is a Shoveler, even knowing about the presence of this bird.
Yes, my father always said (and liked) the behaviour of Shovelers floating/slicing through the water with bill tucked in the water. Something this bird never did.