Not sure who coined the term "Muddled Ducks" but here it refers to the duck complex of Mallard/Mottled/Mexican/American Black and their varied hybrid offspring types. Hybrids occur through inter-breeding among some closely-related species. Familiar to most people, Mallard males and females look quite different...the striking green head of the male is quite different from the female and their body plumages are very different...however...Mottled, Mexican and American Black all have very similar-looking males and females. Thanks to recent genetic work Mexican is now also a separate species, having previously been lumped in with Mallard as a sub-species.
The top photo here is of an unusual bird showing a large black spot at the bill gape, similar to the characteristic mark of Mottled and it also has the unstreaked buffy face and neck like Mottled, but with a very dark body like American Black. It's featured in the recent North American Birds magazine article shown below...could it be the first example of a Mottled and Black hybrid?
The next photo above shows a more typical example of a hybrid Black and Mallard by showing two big white wingbars like Mallard on a very dark bird with a streaked face like Black...it was lucky to catch this bird in flight to see these features.
Below is a photo of the first Mottled Duck reported in Virginia, in 2018. They are normally found well to the south. The next photo is a bird that was with the Mottled...an apparent hybrid Mallard and Mottled, showing mostly Mottled features, but with white on the tail and under the tail like Mallard. In Florida, there is widespread hybridization between Mallard and Mottled. The flying dark duck in the photo has a big black gape, though difficult to see in the photo and a buffy unstreaked face like Mottled and thin white wing bar also like Mottled, but with a very dark body like Black. The other two photos here show birds with apparent combinations of Mallard and Mottled characteristics, including Mottled's reduced eyeline and cap.
These birds were all found by the Observatory's Waterbird Team at the same site, which is not open to the public, in southeastern Virginia. So...are these three species possibly all interbreeding there? We know about Mallard and Black, but perhaps also Mottled and Mallard and Mottled and Black? Mottled and Black aren't known to be together during the breeding season, except for perhaps at this site. The Team is continuing to photograph these unusual combinations in hopes of sorting out this interesting puzzle. The birds would have to be captured to perform genetic tests and this has not been done yet...but...perhaps the different species will be observed mating or rearing young together, to give us more information. Brian Taber
