Hybridization between American Black Ducks and Mallards is rampant. When birding back in the East Coast, I always look for white in the trailing edge of the speculum on American Black Ducks to determine if they are hybrids. Works every single time. No exceptions. No matter what someone on the internet says, American Black Ducks with white in the speculum have Mallard genes in them. Since hybrids are so prevalent, the occurance of one in CO is as significant as a pure American Black Duck, as far as I'm concerned. The duck still originated in the range of the American Black Ducks, so that's pretty neat. Christian Nunes
> Subject: [cobirds] American Black Duck - Jackson Lake State Park > From: [email protected] > Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 19:14:22 -0700 > To: [email protected] > > Today (2/21), Nick Komar and I decided to go birding at Jackson Lake State > Park in Morgan County. Although there were thousands of birds on the > partially open water we only found one bird if interest, a male AMERICAN > BLACK DUCK. It was sitting on the ice just northeast of the boat launch > (which is where we were standing). Just after we found it the bird flew > towards the northwest corner where we lost it and could never find it again. > The bird was very dark and also a little larger than the Mallards that it was > standing by. It had a fairly gray colored head and a yellow bill. In flight > it had very white underwings that Had a strong contrast from the dark belly. > It had a dark tail and a dark blue speculum. The only thing that bothered us > was a little white line on the trailing edge of the speculum, at least it > bothered us until looking at pictures of American Black Ducks on the Internet > and we noticed that several photos showed birds that looked exactly like the > one we saw. > The only other bird that surprised us today was seeing 6 Northern Shrikes > along our travels through Morgan and Weld Counties. > Cole Wild > Loveland > > Sent from my iPhone > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
