Strange looking mallard - Sweden today (1 Viewer)

[Aladdin]

Dear members and bird watchers!

First picture looks like a normal mallard to me. second picture, a bird in the same group of seven mallards. This bird looks very strange to me. Crossbreed? Anyone who can tell which bird is it crossbreeding with?

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin

 

[Andy Hurley]

Hi Aladdin, The 2nd photo shows a Mallard with domestic genes. More information on what types there are can be found @10,000 Birds | Domestic or Manky Mallards

 

[Aladdin]

Hi Aladdin, The 2nd photo shows a Mallard with domestic genes. More information on what types there are can be found @10,000 Birds | Domestic or Manky Mallards

Thank you!

The first picture looked normal to me, molting in to breeding plumage. But the 2nd picture and the bird looks very strange.

Thanks for the link, I will check it out!

Thank you again, appreciated
Aladdin

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

I came to this thread before, and got a strange feeling about the second bird. And this hasnt gone:
Some of the few Muscovy x Mallard hybrides, I have seen live or on pictures showed rusty-brown feathers (or dark, blackish ones with paler rusty edges) on the back and/or on belly and flanks. After I realized this, I looked (not very intensive) for pure Mallards with that colour.
Mallards with a similar colouration are rare, but quite regular, but Mallards with this exact colouration are very rare.
So this hypothesis came into my mind: this exact colouration is a result of Muscovy Duck ancestry?

This bird does shows this colouration, but appart from this, I cant detect any other signs of Muscovy influence, just a slightly fuller, more pointed, wedge-shaped tail than an 100% - ID-book Malard (if you look hard enough, but sure within variation for a pure Mallard), that could be explained by Muscovy influence, but this is surely wishfull thinking.

Conclusion? I hope for others to jump in, and write more about this bird. Thank you!