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Wingman wrote:I bet an RC and a bag of Tabasco peanuts it's a Muscovy.

Originally found from the Rio Grande River basin in Texas south to Mexico, Central and South America, analysis of the mtDNA sequences of the cytochrome b and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 genes (Johnson & Sorenson, 1999) of Muscovy Ducks indicate that they might be close to the genus Aix and perhaps should be placed in the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae.

Muscovies and Mallards are frequent bed-mates, and as can be seen from the images below the hybrids are quite variable whilst still being fairly distinctive. Superficially similar to some domestic Mallards, they appear to have long, thinnish bodies with long, pointed, almost uniform tail feathers; a long, triangular, hooked bill that is mostly dark with a terminal or sub-terminal pale saddle; orange-red eyes; short, stout legs; and a scattering of bronzy-green body feathers.

It’s interesting that the birds that are presumably male have a whitish neck-collar along the lines of a male Mallard and dark heads like a male Muscovy, whilst John Bishop’s bird from Kentucky notably echoes the head pattern of a female Mallard and is presumably therefore a hybrid female. (For more on this hybrid have a look at http://moineaudeparis.com/Oiseaux/Palmi ... index.html.)

(Many thanks to Joern Lehmhus - see the sketch of the Mallard x Wood Duck below - for originally pointing out some of the characteristic’s of this hybrid to me.)

MudHog wrote:Wingman,

When you say "Summer Duck" are you referring to a Wood Duck (Anas sponsa)? I've seen where a Wood Duck was also called a Summer Duck, but then I've seen people call a Greenhead a Summer Mallard.

Could that be a cross between a Drake Mallard and Hen Wood Duck or vice versa?