A Very Odd Duck

On today's hike I bumped into some fellow birders down on Hazard Rd. by Gooseneck Cove. One of them regularly comes to feed the ducks cracked corn in the winter, so when they see his car they come closer and wait to see if there's food coming. So we had a clear view of an awful lot of Mallards, and he and the other birder pointed out an odd duck indeed - a hybrid, a cross between a Mallard and a Pintail.

Now I had no idea that ducks cross-pollinated across species like this, and none of the others had ever seen such a cross before either. But clearly something went on here - either a Mallard fertilized a Pintail egg or vice versa. Clearly the Mallard genes are predominant, but there are some very marked Pintail characteristics.

Here's a portrait of the duck in question:

Note the tail, the wavy dark lines on the feathers below the wings, and the blue bill - these are Pintail characteristics. But the general color scheme and arrangement is very much Mallard.

Now here's our odd duck next to a Mallard male for comparison:

See the differences? Even the green on the head is different, ditto the color on the chest and the lines and the way they're set up on the neck.

And here's another portrait of our very mixed-up friend:

A very odd duck indeed!