(Posted by John Richardson <johnpr...@gmail.com> via moumn.org) This post is in regard to the potential 1st State record MOTTLED DUCK. I contacted Tony Leukering, from Largo, FL who knows a bit about Mottled Duck.
His response is below, and I MUST stress his experience is with FL MODU, not TX MODO. However, I felt it would not harm the discussing or aid those charged with determining whether the bird in Anoka Co. is indeed a none hybrid individual. This is not meant to provoke argument beyond good discussion and reasonable scientific debate. "Hi John: Sorry for the delay in responding, but I wanted to be clear in my head about it before replying. First off, I have to write that I have little focused experience with western Mottled Ducks (MODU), and I'm not particularly clear in my own mind how they differ from Florida MODUs, and I would think that a MODU in MN would be more likely to come from TX than from FL, but who really knows? This bird looks quite a bit like a MODU, and I am not surprised that it was identified as such, particularly the buff color on the face. One of the first points that I should make, though, is that knowing the age and sex would be very beneficial at determining the bird's parentage. Points that I feel are relevant: 1) If it is a male, then it looks too pale to be a Mottled Duck; if a female, then overall color might be fine for that species. 2) If a male and of "pure" parentage, it might be more likely to be a Mexican Duck than a Mottled, again due to overall coloration. 3) The gape spot seems a bit on the weak side for a male Mottled Duck, but may well be fine for a female and for, perhaps, male Mexican Duck (MEDU). 4) The dark streaking in the cheek and the gray basal coloration there are points at odds with an ID as a pure male eastern MODU, but might be fine for a western MODU of either sex. 5) I've had problems figuring out what this bird's tail looks like. There's certainly no obvious white, but I cannot seem to locate the whole tail. The bird is certainly replacing some body feathers (those blackish feathers among the uppertail covs and on the rump), but nothing in that genus should be replacing rectrices at this time of year. 6) Those aforementioned blackish feathers, particularly those on the rump, look far too solidly colored to be those of a pure MODU; see https://www.flickr.com/photos/16207164@N02/5446301976/ and https://www.flickr.com/phoâ¦/carolinabutterflies/13436098045/. Those feathers on male Mallards (MALL) are solid black, which may suggest that there is some MALL parentage involved here. Interestingly, the new uppertail coverts are perfect for MODU. 7) The white trailing edge to the secondaries is quite odd, with the individual secondary tips having white outer webs, but dark inner webs. In MODU (and MEDU), I believe that birds showing white tips have that white on both webs; again, see https://www.flickr.com/photos/16207164@N02/5446301976/. All in all, I think that this is not a pure MODU, but has genes from something else involved, probably MALL. I asked Bill Pranty for his thoughts and he replied that he thought that it looked odd for a Florida MODU, but he has even less experience with western MODU than do I. I hope that this helps. Tony Tony Leukering Largo, FL http://cowyebird.blogspot.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_leukering/ http://aba.org/photoquiz/ ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
