Expert: Roger Lederer - 4/28/2009

Question
QUESTION: This duck was photographed on a river in New Brunswick Canada with some other waterfowl such as Canada geese, & wood ducks this past week on April 24 2009. I cannot identify it from my two North American bird books.
Do you know what it is ?

ANSWER: It is a Black Duck. Males and females are similar and resemble a dark female Mallard.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I had checked the black ducks in the waterfowl section of my books but the picture taken here when zoomed up close,seems to portray a duck with a very solid grey neck not the brownish neck of the black ducks pictured in the bird books. I had thought it may be a hybrid. Is this grey or silver bluish neck color common in a black duck ?

Answer
You are correct in noting that the neck is grayer than is depicted in field guides. But there is some variability in neck color. I looked at various photos of Black Ducks and maybe 20% show that gray color. Molting,sex, age, lighting conditions, photo quality, etc. all cause some variability as well. There is the possibility of it or its parents being some sort of a hybrid with a Mallard but in a wild condition I doubt it. I see lots of strange ducks at farm and city ponds, but rarely in the wild. There is also the natural phenomenon of variability across the population - birds vary in plumage across their range and the ones you see in New Brunswick probably show some differences from those in South Carolina. I'm 99% certain it is a Black Duck, though.

P.S. There is also variability in field guides, which try to show the "average" duck. It's a little like showing the average human - not an easy task.