Oh no, not another Mallard hybrid? (1 Viewer)

[Fulmar]

While organizing some old holiday slides (and looking if I couldn't find any birds to add to my tick-list!) I came across the enclosed one. It was made in a Lake Mead marina near Boulder City, Nevada, USA in the middle of September 1980. I assumed them to be more or less domestic-hybridized Mallards (by the way, the white and domestic-hybridized Mallards are officially called Soup Ducks (translated) in the Netherlands for reporting, and the hybrid Geese as Soup Geese).

However, on taking a closer look there are two with dark bills which variation I cannot find in my (limited) resources. Are these hybrids with another species?

To see them better I will add two blow-ups as well. I look forward to your comment on these.

(and the American Coot in the picture gave me a new lifer after 23 years!).

TIA,
Peter

 

[Fulmar]

Blow-up Nr.1:

 

[Fulmar]

Blow-up Nr.2:

 

[CJW]

Hi Peter, they're certainly all hybrids, but what their exact parentage is I will leave to others to discuss.

 

[Michael Frankis]

All farmyard breed Mallards (except for the American Coot!!). Technically, they are not hybrids, as hybrid means two species are involved, and these are just farm selections of Mallard with no other species involved.

Soup Ducks . . . .I like it!!

Michael

 

[Fulmar]

Thanks for enlightening me on that Michael. I had always thought that the offspring of a wild Mallard paired with a forma domestica Mallard were also called hybrids!

Peter

 

[Charles Harper]

What's the fish?!

 

[alan_rymer]

Charles

Look like Common Carp.
Soup Duck?. I guess thats the same as our Heinz 57 varieties?.

 

[Fulmar]

Charles, Alan,

To explain the presence of the fish: people were feeding the ducks and the fish, and all of them were trying to get a piece in one big feeding frenzy. The fish were trying to reach as far out of the water as they could with their mouths wide open, you could almost look straight into their stomach! It was quite hilarious to see that at some stage the ducks were literally walking on the fish!

A few additional photos are included.

Peter

 

[Fulmar]

Another shot:

 

[Fulmar]

And a third one:

 

[smeltmill]

Dear Peter,

Remarkable. I have never seen anything like that that before.

Thanks for sharing them with us.

Regards.
Gordon Boreham-Styffe.

 

[Charles Harper]

I had no idea Lake Mead was full of carp!

 

[Michael Frankis]

An Osprey's dream picture!