On Dickson wetland Sunday

["Philip Veerman" <>]

The joke of is that this was a Scarlet Macaw from South America (or something similar in various versions) being called the Norwegian Blue. Much more clever. It may just be possible that the "Swedish Blue Duck" variety of Mallard, comes from Sweden and might have blue on it but I have no idea about that.

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Geoffrey Dabb [
Sent: Monday, 21 July 2014 6:08 PM
To:
Subject: FW: [canberrabirds] On Dickson wetland Sunday

Not the Norwegian Blue, then?

 

 

From: Philip Veerman [
Sent: Monday, 21 July 2014 1:36 PM
To: 'Canberra Birds'
Subject: [canberrabirds] On Dickson wetland Sunday

 

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
''If everyone can draw on the power, then where do we put the meter?'' 
That's why we need Renewable energy.

"The Nature of Robertson"
www.peonyden.blogspot.com.au

 

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