Wood Duck x Northern Pintail

possible intersex female Wood Duck x Northern Pintail hybrid, Holkham Park (Norfolk, UK), 4th February 2012 - copyright Dave Appleton

(photo ID: 0302)

This was a difficult ID!  Assuming it was a male no two species in combination seemed to quite add up.  The head shape strongly recalled Wood Duck hybrids, some features seemed to suggest Mallard but the bill colour, among other things, was wrong for Wood Duck x Mallard.  The possibility of it being a trigen (three species involved) was considered, but still nothing resolved it in a satisfactory way.  Eventually we hit on the idea that it might be an intersex female - the pale cheeks and throat are often present on intersex birds and the brown plumage (especially on the back and scapulars) can then be explained as female-type feathers rather than having to find a parent species with brown here.  Hybrids seem more prone to intersex so this is not implausible.  So far though, the proposed identification is only tentative - maybe when we have more experience of similar hybrids we will be able to firm it up more.  One thing we have learned is that the chestnut reddish colour under the tail is typical of several Wood Duck hybrids (and also some others, such as dabbling x diving duck combinations).

possible intersex female Wood Duck x Northern Pintail hybrid, Holkham Park (Norfolk, UK), 4th February 2012 - copyright Dave Appleton

(photo IDs: 0303-0308)

Wood Duck Aix sponsa
Northern Pintail Anas acuta