Sunday 8 May 2016

Hybrid mallard

Now this is really interesting to me - I saw this fella today while walking around Stockers Lake and was totally confused. Mallard drake head and tail, and chestnut feathers in between? Not at all familiar. So when I got home I did some reading and discovered that mallards hybridise quite freely. So I am assuming that one of his parents was a mallard and one was something else. Or he's from an escaped domesticated strain, bred to have different plumage. Either way, he's very striking looking.

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