On Dickson wetland Sunday

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Yes they are Mallards. Mallards have been domesticated for so long that there is a wide variety of colour forms and shapes and sizes to have come out of that process. Random white patches are regular in domesticated birds. It could be a  "Swedish Blue Duck" or some other variety of Mallard, via a long domestic history of a range of selective processes. Certainly not Blue-billed Ducks, apart from what Denis wrote, they are far too big.  

Philip

-----Original Message-----
From: Denis Wilson [
Sent: Monday, 21 July 2014 9:42 AM
To: Lucy Randall
Cc: John Layton; COGS
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] On Dickson wetland Sunday

Re Lucy's mystery ducks, I must beg to differ from John Layton's suggestion. Blue-billed Duck have a very different shape on the water. They sit low on the water, and have rounded backs, and do not have a white throat.

I cannot offer any suggestions for an ID, other than to agree with Lucy's suggestion that they are probably escapees.

A quick image search on "Domesticated Ducks" revealed many large ducks with white throats. One such variety is called "Swedish Blue Duck"
http://www.123rf.com/photo_26531431_a-domestic-duck--anas-platyrhynchos-domesticus--swedish-blue-duck--swedish-black-duck-breed.htmlz

Hope this is helpful.

Cheers

Denis Wilson

Denis Wilson

JP Morgan once said
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"The Nature of Robertson"
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On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 8:10 AM, Lucy Randall <> wrote:

I'll go past this morning with a camera and try and get better photo!

They are considerably larger than the resident wood and black ducks. I don't think they are and assume that they are escapees.

Lucy
Sent from my iPhone

Lucy Randall

> On 21 Jul 2014, at 7:49, John Layton <> wrote:
>
> Does anyone know what these two ducks are? I apologies for the quality of
> the photo - I only had my iPhone!
> They have glossy dark purple heads and white under the chin.
> Cheers
> Lucy
>
>

> Going by the photo I think they are Blue-bill Ducks.
>
>
> John Layton