10,000 Birds | Hybrid Mallards Hybrid Mallards 24 Comments Mallards can be dirty ducks. Very, very, dirty ducks. And while ducks in general are known for their hybridizing ways, none are as prolific and undiscriminating as Anas platyrhynchos. The list of species that Mallards are known to have hybridized with is long and in some cases Mallard genes threaten to flood the gene pool of other species. Note that in discussing hybrids here I am not including the wide variety of “ Manky Mallards ” which result from domestication and from wild Mallards mating with a variety of domestic breeds. What will be covered in this post is the offspring of Mallards and other species of wild ducks, some of which are startlingly beautiful. First, however, we should take a look at the ordinary Mallard, both male and female, so as to establish a baseline, if you will, for Mallard-ness. Below are ordinary and, so far as I can tell, pure, Mallards.

pair of ordinary Mallards, Saratoga Springs, NY a small flock of ordinary Mallards in Central Park, New York City The most likely of other species for Mallards to hybridize with, at least in North America, is the American Black Duck Anas rubripes. Hybrid male Mallard X American Black Duck can be rather readily identified. They tend to look like the American Black Duck but with Mallard-green on the head. Often they have the Mallard‘s curled tail feathers and paler coloration then a pure American Black Duck on their back and flanks. When one takes into consideration backcrosses there is a bit of variety but it should be apparent when one is dealing with a male American Black Duck with even a bit of Mallard in it. Hybrid females are more difficult but can be picked out by looking through female Mallards and finding a darker individual and then looking for other characteristics that don’t match either Mallards or American Black Ducks exactly, like the speculum having some white but not as much as a Mallard would. That’s how I found the female featured below.

pure American Black Duck Anas rubripes in Queens, New York two male Mallard X American Black Duck in Nassau County, New York, though the one in the back might be a backcross female Mallard X American Black Duck in Queens, NY Another bird the Mallard hybridizes with relatively often is the Northern Pintail Anas acuta. The resulting duck is beautiful and whenever a photographer sees one he takes advantage for sure. I have not yet laid eyes on a Mallard X Northern Pintail but I can’t wait until I do. Northern Pintail Anas acuta at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, California Northern Pintail X Mallard in British Columbia © Rick Wright (used with permission) The Pacific Black Duck Anas superciliosa is a simply gorgeous duck, especially considering its limited palette, that also occasionally gets involved with Mallards and the result is, sadly, somewhat less stunning.

Pacific Black Duck Anas superciliosa Victoria, Australia,by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos released under GFDL Mallard X Pacific Black Duck in New Zealand by” ischa1″ who released the image into the public domain When Mallards mix with Gadwall Anas strepera the resulting offspring is known as Brewer’s Duck, named by John James Audubon after his friend, the ornithologist Thomas Brewer . Of course Audubon thought that the bird he shot in Louisiana was an entirely new species instead of the hybrid that it is. male and female Gadwall Anas strepera in New York Mallard X Gadwall or Brewer’s Duck, both above and below, in Maryland © Bill Hubick (used with permission) Less famous but just as striking is the match-up of Mallard and Spot-billed Duck: a Mallard X Spot-billed Duck hybrid © Dave Johnson (used with permission) Teals are nearly as indiscriminately amorous as Mallards (see our in-depth analysis of Hybrid Teals ), so evidence of teals hybridizing with Mallards makes perfect sense.

Photographer C G Gustavsson captured shots of what appears to be a Eurasian Teal x Mallard in Copenhagen, Denmark, which he’s graciously shared with us here: a Eurasian Teal X Mallard © C G Gustavsson (See all of C G Gustavsson’s amazing hybrid ducks and geese in his Flickr photostream ) Mallards are fascinating creatures in and of themselves and become even more so when their genes mix with other ducks. I hope you enjoyed this small gallery and check back now and then as I plan to keep it growing because, of course, these few ducks are just a small sample of the hybrid Mallards out there in the world. If you have a good image of a Mallard hybrid that I can add to this post please feel free to leave a link in the comments or email it to 10000birdsblogger AT gmail DOT com. Thanks! Corey Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family.

He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy, their son, Desmond Shearwater, and their indoor cat, B.B. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York. Share This Article General Knowledge #6 - StudyBlue Good to have you back! If you've signed in to StudyBlue with Facebook in the past, please do that again. General Knowledge #6 Which fish is smoked and sold as finnan haddie? Haddock Which former MI5 officer wrote Spycatcher? Peter Wright What sort of creature is a cotinga? Bird What is the name of the full moon closest to the Autumn Equinox? Harvest moon Which Irish surname means �warlike one�? Kelly What is the name given to a cross in the form of an �X�? Saltire The coronations of most of the French kings took place in which city in the Marne region of France? Rheims Who wrote the opera La Boheme? Puccini, Van Gogh cut of part of his own left ear during a quarrel with which other artist?

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All Quiet on the Western Front In August 1995, which of the Leeward Islands had to be evacuated due to a volcanic eruption? Montserrat Which US city is served by La Guardia airport? New York In which African country is the port of Tema? Ghana What is the name of the great plain of central South America between the Andes and the Paraguay River? Gran Chaco In 1987, Stephen Roche become the first Irishman to win what? Tour de France Who was the first British golfer to win the US Masters title? Sandy Lyle, Of the eleven founder members of OPEC, which was the only South American country? Venezuela In space technology, for what is �comsat� an abbreviation? Communications Satellite A heptathlon comprises how many events? Seven, Which gas smells like rotten eggs? Hydrogen sulphide What are the celestial bodies Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta? Asteroids Paramaribo is the capital of which republic in South America? Surinam Held every 12 years and lasting for several weeks, what is the name of the religious festival that attracts millions of Hindus to the River Ganges?

The Maha Kumbh Mela How many chromosomes has a normal human body cell? 46 Which store in the UK was the first to have an escalator installed, in 1898? Harrod�s From which country does the Skoda motorcar originate? Czech Republic Brass is an alloy of which two minerals? Copper and zinc Which Canadian rock band had hits with Magic Carpet Ride and Born to be Wild? Steppenwolf In the Bible, the Gospel according to whom is the first book of the New Testament? St Matthew What name is given to rain that has absorbed sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen from the atmosphere? Acid rain Roald Dahl wrote the script for which Bond film? You Only Live Twice. Which countries fought in the Battle of Rocroi in 1643? France and Spain Which British novelist wrote the bestseller Room at the Top? John Braine Who sculpted the statue of Peter Pan in London�s Kensington Gardens? George Frampton Which king led England into the Hundred Years War with France? Edward III, Who was the Greek goddess of the moon? Selene With which instrument is jazz musician Jack Teagarden associated?

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Sicily Where would an Edwardian woman have worn a toque? On her head: it was a small, brimless hat The heavy woollen cloth known as duffel is named after a town in which European country? Belgium Which hoofed ruminant animal belongs to the genus Capra? Goat In which European country is the town of Neuch�tel? Switzerland, What nationality was the composer Carl Nielsen, who died in 1931? Danish After her husband had been assassinated in 1983, who became president of the Philippines in 1986? Corazon Aquino, What was the name of the 16th century Flemish geographer, best known for the cylindrical map projection that was named after him? Mercator, Which British soldier and author wrote The Seven Pillars of Wisdom? T E Lawrence The Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and the Guggenheim Museum in New York are two of the best-known public buildings designed by which US architect? Frank Lloyd Wright Which part of the eye is responsible for its colour? Iris, What is the name for abnormally high blood pressure?

Hypertension Which hunter in Greek mythology was changed into a stag by Artemis and killed by his own hounds Actaeon From which ship did the famous bell hanging in the underwriting room at Lloyd�s of London come? Lutine In 1999, the people of East Timor voted for independence from which country? Indonesia What form of laryngitis occurs most commonly in children under five years of age? Croup What monetary unit of Israel is worth one hundredth of a shekel? Agora In the high jump, what name is given to the manoeuvre of jumping over the horizontal bar backwards and head first? Fosbury flop What is the name given to the set of chalk stacks off the west coast of the Isle of Wight? The Needles What is the chief port of Tanzania? Dar-es-Salaam What name is given to the indicator of stock market prices; based on the share values of 30 blue-chip stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange? Dow Jones Index Which is the largest deer? Elk, or moose, Which is the inner and longer of the two bones of the human forearm?

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Bethlehem What was the name of Othello�s wife in Shakespeare�s play of the same name? Desdemona With which sport was Geoff Capes most famously associated? Shot-putting gadwall | The Naturephile The Naturephile Posted on August 20, 2013 | 10 comments RSPB Minsmere is nestled on the North Sea coast in Suffolk sandwiched between the heather and gorse of Dunwich Heath and the nuclear power station at Sizewell. I spent a day there at the end of June and the plan had been to make a 5 a.m. start and get there for the sunrise. But the weather on that morning was foul so I started later and stopped off on the way there at RSPB Lakenheath Fen, on the west side of Suffolk, to wait for the rain to abate. Lakenheath Fen was previously owned by the Bryant and May match makers so the woodland there is primarily poplar which is apparently the wood of choice to make match sticks. Consequently the air is filled with that wonderful noise that poplars make when the wind blows.

Despite the pouring rain, which precluded photoghraphy on the Fen, the omens were good. There were reports of a red footed falcon which I didn’t see, but I did see a wild otter, the first time I’ve ever seen one. And I heard a bittern booming , and it was the first time I’d heard that too. So that was two new encounters even before I’d reached the coast. The bittern (Botaurus stellaris, Dansk: rørdrum) is a small brown heron which lives in reed beds and hunts fish so stealthily that it’s next to impossible to see until it moves. The booming is an amazing sound and the recording can’t really do it justice, it can be heard for more than a kilometer and the only thing I can liken it to is a distant foghorn. Coming through the reedbeds early on a quiet rain sodden morning gave it a ghostly quality which is difficult to describe.

Bittern are rare and to give you an idea of how unusual it is to see, or hear, one, there were only 600 individuals in the whole of the UK in 2010/2011 and only the males boom. East Anglia is a good place to look though because they migrate here across the North Sea from Holland, and the first breeding record was in Norfolk in 1911, having been extinct in the UK in 1868. From the Fen I headed off in my rainsoaked state to Minsmere. But the gods were with me as the sun came out on the way and stayed out for the rest of the day. It turned into a scorcher. Common whitethroat male guarding his bushes On the way into the reserve from the carpark the habitat is woodland which opens out onto grassland before arriving at the fresh water and salt water lagoons. There were reports of stone curlew on the heath and an old twitcher with a telescope claimed to have spotted them, but I couldn’t find them and remained sceptical.

But in an adjacent bush was a male whitethroat patrolling the apex, even though it was the end of June he was one of the first I’d seen this year. Pausing momentarily to snap the whitethroat I then wended my way to a hide overlooking the salt water lagoons. Sandwich tern (Sterna sandvicensis, Dansk: splitterne) snapped from the comfort of the hide The main hide overlooking the lagoon is, in my opinion, pretty much perfect. It’s a modern and substantial affair and it made me chuckle listening to the twitchers grumbling about how they preferred sitting in a draughty cold shed with limited views and no comfort whatsoever. I’ve got no problem doing it the old fashioned way when it’s the only option, but when the facilities are to hand I much prefer to sit in warmth and comfort with panoramic views through huge glazed windows which can be opened if so desired. And on this occasion the facilities were available, so that’s what I did, and I hope you like the results… A pair of common terns – “Where’ve you been? I’ve been worried sick.

You treat this place like a hotel!” The common tern (Sterna hirundo, Dansk: fjordterne) on the left had been sitting there for many minutes, then the one on the right arrived to be scolded mercilessly by it’s companion, and this happened each time the second one came back after a brief fishing trip. The common tern could easily be mistaken for the arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea, Dansk: havterne) but is easily distinguished at a glance by the black tip to its beak which is absent in the arctic tern. Both species are consummate aeronauts and fishermen, and they both breed in Europe before migrating south to Africa and beyond. There were big numbers of all kinds of seabirds on the lagoon including the terns. Gulls, black tailed godwits, a spoonbill (another first ever sighting for me), and numerous ducks including shoveller and shelduck, none of which I got really good photographs of.

But this pair of gadwall (Anas strepera, Dansk knarand) were feeding close by and did allow me to photograph them: Male gadwall behind nesting black headed gulls …and the female of the species Gadwall can often be seen on lakes inland in the winter when they appear drab and uninteresting compared to say a shoveller or a goldeneye, but in bright light in their finest breeding plumage I think they’re quite splendid. The star of the show at Minsmere is often the avocet. I’ve seen them and photographed them here before but this time they were nesting on a mudflat close by: The iconic avocet (Recurvirostra avoseta , Dansk: klyde) Avocet parent-to-be looking after the nest The other avocet parent was sitting on the nest and occasionally stood up to turn the eggs. It did this every few minutes giving nice views of the eggs which would be extremely well camouflaged when exposed to potential predators such as the great black backed gull. At one point a pair of peregrine falcons appeared and proceeded to launch multiple waves of tandem attacks on the ground nesting birds.

It reminded me of the scene at the start of the film ‘Battle of Britain’ when the Luftwaffe fighters swoop down and shoot up a British airfield. Suffice to say all hell broke loose, it was highly entertaining to watch, and I’ll write more about that in my next post. It’s not just the birdlife which marks Minsmere out as a special place for wildlife. I knew there were red deer (Cervus elaphus) in this part of Suffolk but I’d only ever seen occasional individuals and one or two small groups in the past. But on the way off the reserve in the early evening there was a big field in which there were several hundred of them. Grazing red deer On first spotting these I thought they were livestock on a farm, but then I realised there were no fences that they wouldn’t be able to simply step over so they must be wild. I’d never seen so many of these in one place before. On an unrelated note (the trip to Minsmere was in June and I’m writing this in August), so far this year in Cambridgeshire there has been a dearth of butterflies especially small tortoiseshell.

But the day before yesterday there was one flitting around the entrance to work when I came home and when I got here there were five more on my buddleia bush. And yesterday there were more in the garden. So I hope they’re making a late recovery, along with other hard hit species, from the Lepidopteran devastation inflicted on them by the cold weather in previous three years. The RSPB: Pintail Conservation status: Amber Slightly bigger than a mallard, these long-necked and small-headed ducks fly with a curved back pointed wings and a tapering tail, making this the best way to distinguish them from other ducks in the UK. The pintail is a 'quarry' species, meaning that it can be legally shot in winter, but - unlike in parts of Europe - it does not appear that shooting is affecting their population status in the UK. The small breeding population and significant winter population make them an Amber List species. Illustrations Duck (Anas Platyrhynchos) - Animals - A-Z Animals - Animal Facts, Information, Pictures, Videos, Resources and Links Listen Ducks are medium sized aquatic birds related to other aquatic birds like swans and geese.

Ducks differ from swans and geese in their tendency to dive into the water in order catch their food. Ducks are omnivorous animals feeding on aquatic plants, small fish , insects and grubs both in and out of water meaning that ducks can easily adapt to different conditions. It is because of the duck's ability to eat such a diverse amount of food both in water and on dry land that makes ducks one of the most widespread birds in the world as they are found on every continent, with the obvious exception of Antarctica. A duck's mouth contains rows of tiny plates that line their teeth, to help them filter water out of their beaks without losing food. The duck's advanced water filtering system is similar to the way in which a blue whale feeds in the ocean. Contrary to popular belief, not all ducks actually quack! It is generally known that it is only really the females of most duck species that actually make a quacking sound. All ducks actually have a wide range of calls that they use to communicated with one another including whistles and grunts! Ducks are particularly vulnerable animals and therefore ducks have many predators around the world.

Predators of ducks range from smaller animals such as foxes, wolves and even large fish , to bigger animals including crocodiles and humans. Ducks are farmed all over the world for their meat and eggs. Ducks are also farmed on mass for their feathers (known as down) which is most commonly used in bedding, such as duvets and pillows. Domestic duck populations are thought to be at their highest in Asia particularly in China which has the largest market for duck in the world. Many different species of duck are consumed around the world, with the meat of the duck being particularly favourable to humans due to it's rich taste. Ducks are also hunted regularly by shooters as ducks are seen to be an easy target. The calm and quiet nature of the duck means that it often takes a long time to react to surrounding noise. As with other commercially farmed birds such as chickens , ducks are often intensively farmed and are subjected to terrible conditions. Consumers of duck meat and eggs should only purchase products that are organic or free range, and should try to avoid buying bedding that is made from duck down (feathers).

Ducks have adapted well to life on the water and along with their special water filtering system in their mouths, ducks also have webbed feet which allows them to travel on the surface of the water with ease. The webbed feet of the duck also make it easier for the duck to walk on the slippery river banks. Duck Foot Facts Ducks have webbed feet which allows them to paddle and swim in the water more smoothly. When ducks swim, they push out their feet back in a kicking motion so that the webbing catches the water and pushing it behind the duck. On the return stroke, the webbing on the foot of the duck closes up which allows the duck to have less water resistance and to travel faster. Ducks have a have complex structure of capillaries on their feet which help to regulate the blood flow and stops their feet from getting cold. The webbed feet of the duck means that the duck cannot walk smoothly on land and instead move around in a waddling motion. Duck Teeth Facts Like other species of bird , ducks do not have teeth but instead uses their beaks to catch their food. Ducks have rows of thin bristles in their mouths that enable them to filer nutrient particles out of the water.

Ducks use their strong beaks to catch their food and then swallow them whole, using their gizzard to help to digest their food. The beak of a duck is comprised of an upper and lower jaw that are strong as they are made out of bone. The duck uses its beak both to feed, and to groom itself as the duck picks the dirt out of its feathers. Duck Comments Mallard, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology Similar to adult male Mallard Very different shape with shaggy crest and thin, serrated bill Bold white collar on neck White stripe on sides separates gray flanks from dark back. © Kim Taylor , March 2011 Similar Species The American Black Duck of eastern North America looks like a female Mallard but has a darker body, greenish-yellow bill, and a purplish “speculum” patch in the wings that does not have white borders. Identification is complicated by the frequent occurrence of hybrids between the two species. The Mottled Duck of the coastal Southeast also resembles a female Mallard, but is somewhat darker, with less black on the bill (just a small black spot at the base), and lacks the broad white borders to the speculum.

Female Gadwalls have a slimmer bill with a thin orange line along the edge and often show a white patch on the folded wing. Northern Shovelers have a bill that is noticeably larger and wider than any other duck’s. Its body pattern is different from a Mallard’s, too: the belly and sides are chestnut, set off by a white breast and undertail. Female Northern Shovelers, in addition to their very large bill, are paler overall, with lots of buffy and tan tones to the body. The green heads of Red-breasted Mergansers and Common Mergansers superficially resemble a male Mallard’s, but these birds’ shape and behavior are much different: mergansers are streamlined ducks with slender bills, and they dive instead of dabble.

Question: What type of creature is a gadwall?
Answer: A duck