Background information for those who didn’t see the first thread:
This is a duck I keep seeing at Lake Mendota. He is the same size and shape as the local mallards, but is completely black except for a white spot on his chest. (You can’t really see it in the photos, but his bill is the same size and shape as a mallard’s.)
The last time we did this, the only possible matches were salt-water dwellers. My dad’s theory is that “Target,” a.k.a. “Bob,” is a mallard with some sort of rare genetic variation in coloration.
Here are photos. They were taken in low light and aren’t of the best quality, but it’s better than nothing.
Well the story I’ve been told about ducks like this is that they are hybrids of the local mallards and domestic ducks that have been set free. I imagine the ducks all live together in high concentration, are all relatively tame (because of the easy eatin’) and just get along so well with each other that their genes are well mixed and its just a color variation due to the genes introduced by the domestics gone wild. I’ve seen broods of mallard ducklings all the same except for one cute little yellow one. I’ve also seen large populations of mallards in cities where it is not unusual to see these same color variations. I’d guess out of 100 mallards, I would see 5 with obviously non-mallard coloration.
Yeah, with mallard populations I’d bet you’d find some freak-os
In my Sibleys the closest thing I can find is something called the “domestic” mallard, aka Pekin duck, anos platyrhynchos, that is very dark except for a white patch in that spot BUT a yellow-orange beak and orange feeties, which your freak appears to lack.
Guess number two, but hard to tell in your photos-- he seems to have a rufous body, and not exactly black. This might be a adult summer female “ruddy duck”, which have black heads, white on the throat and top of breast, a dark bluish bill, dark feet and dark reddish brown body. They seem to have a range that covers the whole damn country. http://www.fnal.gov/ecology/wildlife/specs/Ruddy_Duck.html
Perhaps more freak ducks will start popping up?
Where I live, a sub-species of pigeon with kind of curled over, deformed feet developed, and now they dominate certain areas of the city.
Well no, the last time it was also suggested by several people, including me, that it was a hybrid between a wild-type Mallard and a domestic duck (most varieties of which are descended from Mallards.)
As far as I can tell from the photo, it sems to be a Mallard, though it differs in several characteristics, including the chest spot, belly color, and bill color. By far the most likely possibility is that these characteristics are due to some domestic genes. Such ducks are not particularly rare in the wild. However, the possibility of a mutation can’t be ruled out.
It is definitely not any other species that normally occurs in North America in the wild. It is certainly not a Ruddy Duck, which differs in size, proportions, and plumage, and it is definitely not a Mottled Duck or an American Black Duck.
