Warembourg brown duck

[Steven Mlodinow]

Greetings All

Hopefully, this email does not bounce off of COBIRDS as several of mine have recently.

The darkish female Mallard type duck is a Mallard. This was my impression, and I shared the observations with Andy Engilis, who is doing research on Mexican Duck and Mallard (and hybrid) appearance using genotype to confirm the ID. Andy also said Mallard, though he did not go into detail.

The bill pattern is unusual for Mexican Duck as is the somewhat pale belly. The bird is not as dark as most female Mexican Ducks, and I've seen female Mallards with extensively brown tails. This is all kind of vague, but the ID of female Mexican Duck vs Mallard is complex and not still fully worked out

Best Wishes

Steve Mlodinow

Longmont CO