Mallard x Eurasian Teal

Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrid, Espoo (Finland), 19th May 2009 - copyright Henry Lehto

(photo ID: 2541)

Henry tells us that a male Mallard was often pecking at this bird's breast, hence the missing feathers apparent in some of the photos.  In the next photo the speculum looks to be the colour of a Mallard's but in the field it usually appeared green.

Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrid (with Mallards; same bird as in photo ID 2541 above), Espoo (Finland), 19th May 2009 - copyright Henry Lehto

(photo IDs: 2542-2545)

The next bird, which was displaying to a female Mallard, is presumed to be the same as the last one, showing the same pecked breast.  The last photo in this set shows the speculum looking green on the left wing as it usually did in the field and, with a different angle to the light, more Mallard-like in the right wing.

Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrid (with Mallards), Espoo (Finland), 23rd/24th March 2009 - copyright Henry Lehto

(photo IDs: 2527-2532)

Henry is not quite sure if the next bird is the same as the birds above as it seems to show a different head pattern.  They were all taken within 15km of each other.

 Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrid (with Mallard), Espoo (Finland), 25th October 2009 - copyright Henry Lehto

(photo IDs: 2562-2567)

The next one is taken two years earlier in 2007.  Henry had supposed the March/May 2009 bird above was different as there seemed to be some differences in the head pattern, but then the October 2009 sighting was more like the 2007 one below.  Henry describes this bird as being less scared than the one in March 2009.

Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrid (with Mallards), Espoo (Finland), 24th February 2007 - copyright Henry Lehto

(photo IDs: 2453-2461)

Carl Gunnar went to extraordinary lengths to capture these fantastic shots but I reckon it was worth it!  He tells us that the bird was clearly smaller than Mallards.

Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrid, Copenhagen (Denmark), 24th January 2010 - copyright Carl Gunnar Gustavsson 
(photo IDs: 0944-0950)

I presume it was the same bird that Lars photographed earlier.  You can clearly see the smaller size compared to Mallards in the second of his images:

Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrid (with Mallards), Enghaveparken, Copenhagen (Denmark), 3rd January 2010 - copyright Lars Michael Nielsen 
(photo IDs: 0859-0861)

This hybrid is in fact quite variable in the head pattern.  Joern has studied photos of 14 Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrids (8 from captivity, 6 in the wild) and has illustrated the variation in the plate below.  Two of the birds in the plate are Mallard x Green-winged Teal hybrids (wild) but the patterns shown by those birds were also shown by Mallard x Eurasian Teal.

Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrids and Mallard x Green-winged Teal hybrids (the Green-winged Teal hybrids are top left and lower right, but the head patterns also occurred on Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrids) - copyright Joern Lehmhus 
(plate ID: 0760)

The majority of birds Joern studied showed patterns similar to the birds top left and centre left.

Joern has written about Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrids in the German magazine Aves.  The text is in German but non-German speakers may still be interested as it's accompanied by an extra photo of a Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrid.  You can access the PDF of Aves 2 (2011) - the article starts on page 21 with section 4 on this hybrid beginning at page 23.  The photos labelled Abb. 9 and Abb.10 are Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrids (Abb. 9 is the same as one of the photos above).



Mallard Anas platyrhynchos 
Eurasian Teal Anas crecca 
Green-winged Teal Anas carolinensis