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Posted by John Boyd on 09:09:45 01/31/07
In Reply to: Re: duck i.d. help please posted by Bill Pranty
The article by McCracken, Johnson, and Sheldon (Conservation Genetics 2 (2001) 87-102) gives a range map for "Mexican" Mallard that includes Texas west of the Pecos, southern New Mexico, and SE Arizona. The Birder's Guide to SE Arizona calls them "local" and "fairly common" while "Birds of the Trans-Pecos" says they are the "vast majority" of breeding Mallards in the region.
One could read the McCracken et. al. article as making a good case for lumping Mottled, Mexican, and American Black Ducks with Mallards. Its main point is that the western gulf Mottleds and Florida Mottleds are genetically separate, but it makes the point partly by presenting evidence that some (not all) Mallards and/or Black Ducks are more closely related to the Mottled subgroups than the Mottleds are to each other.
Ffield marks: Facial streaking is pretty variable on Mottled. I don't know if it indicates Mallard ancestry. An unstreaked buffy chin (as on this bird) is supposed to be useful for separating Mottled and Black Ducks. I don't know whether it does the same for Mottled and Mallard.
As for the tail: I think the highlights are a bit blown out on the photo, but the rectrices still look like they have buffy (not white) edges.
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