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Hi Michael -
A few years ago, when doing regular (weekly)
waterbird counts at Albert Park Lake in Melbourne, there were some apparently
similarly coloured birds for a while. I am sure that many other people on
Birding-Aus must have noticed them. They were definitely Black Duck x
domestic (Mallard derived) hybrids, as I followed them from when they were
ducklings being ushered around by a Black Duck and all-white domestic duck pair
(female and male respectively, from memory). The brood of downy ducklings
was mixed, with some being of normal BD colouration and some noticeably
paler.
The paler ones grew up to fledge into the plumage
you describe and, apart from the colouration, were like normal BDs - same
size and able to fly strongly. Subsequently at least one of these hybrids
paired off with a Black Duck and produced ducklings which all looked like
standard BDs to me. I do have a photograph of one of the hybrids somewhere
which I could try to dig out sometime.
This does not mean that the bird you saw was not a
leucistic pure BD, but the hybrid theory is plausible.
Cheers,
Hugo
Hugo Phillipps
Queenscliff, Vic
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