DuckSouth.com

ducksam315 wrote:Black...... mottled has black spots on orange feet.

Can we get a pic of those polkadot feet?

If killed in coastal marsh area-mottled duck.
" " inland a black for sure-mottled ducks don't go far from the coast.

If killed in coastal marsh area-mottled duck.
" " inland a black for sure-mottled ducks don't go far from the coast.

Not true...there were last yr and this yr been several mottled ducks killed in the delta....there was even one killed in south arkansas last yr........It's mottled duck

Black Duck (Anas rubripes): Both sexes are dark mottled-brown with lighter brown heads. Glossy purple wing patches are bordered with black, wing linings are white. Male - brighter bill and foot coloring than the female. Nests usually on high ground, favoring wooded areas. May also nest in fields or along streams, sometimes in hollow trees.

-DU Wing Watcher's Guide 1973

Mottled. The wings patches are too green.

Mottled

White line of feathers along the bottom of speculum prove it to be mottled.

That's a Black Mallard Hen! Mottled ducks won't have the white trailer on the wing patch unless it's been cross bred with a black. I just don't belive that bird has reached full plumage yet. But you know a mottled duck is in the Mallardine family anyway. They just don't migrate!

you guys are hilarious, how could you be off on sex and species? It is not a hen. And it is a mottled duck. And yes, I've shot them both, extinsively with both lens and firearm.

Again ITS A MOTTLED

kris Schaumburg wrote:you guys are hilarious, how could you be off on sex and species? It is not a hen. And it is a mottled duck. And yes, I've shot them both, extinsively with both lens and firearm.

pretty funny right there.

Nope, Juvi Mottle drake... Once you kill a Drake Blackduck you will never have to ask that question again.

Mottled


Black

BR549 wrote: Mottled ducks won't have the white trailer on the wing patch unless it's been cross bred with a black.

No offense, but profoundly incorrect.

Neither......looks like a cross........ http://www.greglasley.net/motblk.html

There are different strains of mottled ducks. You can have "lighter ones" of the MS/Florida traditional mottled duck group, and very "dark ones" that are from the texas/mexican strain. I shoot them very frequently, as do most folks down here, and see both versions. I have YET to see one with polka dotted feet.

I believe what the OP has is a "dark phase" or mexican strain mottled duck due to the feather markings on the edge, the chin/neck lacking significant striations, and the wing patch. A black duck looks like a hen mallard with a yellow bill that has had burned motor oil poured all over it. Once you ever pick one up, you will understand.

What confuses most people (or encourages them if they REALLY wanna say they killed a black duck regardless) is that there has been so much interbreeding with blacks and mallards that some (but not most) blacks are starting to show the white trailing wing patch.

Here is some more info:

http://www.greglasley.net/motblk.html