That is a female Mallard, all right. Just why it is pale is hard to say. Many individuals of lots of species have this kind of "watered down" pigmentation from various genetic mutations. But, seeing that this is a Mallard, the probability of the genetics coming from a domestic strain is high. I believe this is what is known as "fawn" in the domestic breeds.
Kevin Kevin J. McGowan, Ph.D. Instructor Home Study Course in Bird Biology Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 [email protected] 607-254-2452 ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Anderson [[email protected]] Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 9:14 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Leucistic duck on Factory St. Pond All: This is a picture of the duck that Dave mentioned that was around Stewart Park. This picture was from November 19th. http://picasaweb.google.com/fishoak/Birds#5405810352034722434 Enjoy! Paul Frritzie (& all), That sounds like a bird I've seen several times at Union Springs, Myers Point and Stewart Park. It looks to me like a leucistic female Mallard. I don't know whether it has some recent domestic heritage or is just a sport. I'm no expert on the subject, but offhand I didn't notice any pattern or color or shape to indicate it's a hybrid. Still, knowing Mallards, a hybrid is always a possibility with an odd duck. Sorry not to have answered the phone. I'm in Canada with the Cayuga Bird Club overnight field trip to Amherst Island. So far we've seen Snowy, Short-eared, Barred, Northern Saw-whet, and Boreal Owls. --Dave Nutter On Saturday, February 06, 2010, at 01:56PM, "John and Fritzie Blizzard" <[email protected]><mailto:[email protected]> wrote: > Hi folks, John saw, without binox, a light colored duck on the Factory St. pond when he went for mail this morning. We went back down & looked at the bird with the scope. It was rather cream colored all over with some medium tan markings on shoulders & wing tips. I say that rather hesitantly because the bird had it's head tucked under the wing & it was angled away from me so determining where the darker markings were was not particularly easy. I believe from what I could see that the bill was a light color. The duck was in a group of about 10 mallards over under the tree whose limbs hang in the water on the north edge of the pond so I suspect from the shape that it is a mallard altho' I couldn't see any curled feathers, as a male would have had, under the tail. Tried to call Dave Nutter ... (only one whose phone number I had along with me but got no answer) ... to have him post it in case any other birders were up this way. Kathy Strickland was birding around the lake with Lynn from Roch. but I couldn't get any reply from her on her cell phone . Soooo. Maybe someone else will see it. Screechie had put in an appearance between the time John was there & the time we went back down. Such a cutie!! The large rafts of Redheads were spread out down along the lake between Gully Rd & the Aurora Post office. Canadas & Goldeneye were in the rafts. Saw about 6 turkeys just up Poplar Ridge Rd. 1/2 mi. & then another 24 over along the woods east of Dixon Rd.. Nasty day to be out of the car or house. Thermometer in the car registered 14 degrees but the wind chill felt like -14 & snow was blowing north to south across the roads. I'm glad I'm not down in my birthplace in the mountains west of Harrisonburg, VA nor at John's in Westminster, MD. today. The last few yrs. both places have had more snow & colder weather than we've had here. Yep! As I said before, I'll take beautiful NY. Keep warm. Fritzie Blizzard -- Paul Anderson. GrammaTech, Inc. Tel: +1 607 273-7340 x18 mailto:[email protected] http://www.grammatech.com -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
