Tuesday, 15 April 2014

Mallard x Northern Shoveler

Mallard x Northern Shoveler hybrid, Utterslev Mose (Denmark), 17th March 2003 - copyright Lars Vilhelm Hansen
(photo ID: 2596)


This seems to be quite a rarely encountered hybrid, the bird shown in the photos here being a fairly typical individual.

Mallard x Northern Shoveler hybrid (same bird as in photo ID 2596 above), Utterslev Mose (Denmark), 16th March 2003 - copyright Lars Vilhelm Hansen
(photo ID: 2597)


Another similar bird follows.  Nice to see a good shot of the upperwing on this one.


Mallard x Northern Shoveler hybrid, southern Bavaria (Germany), December 2015 - copyright Johannes Honold
(photo IDs: 2422-2423)


The following illustration by Joern is based on pictures of a bird from Denmark, a bird from the Netherlands and partly on photos of a bird from USA.

Mallard x Northern Shoveler hybrid - copyright Joern Lehmhus
(illus. ID: 0718)


Joern has written about Mallard x Northern Shoveler hybrids in the German magazine Aves.  It's is in German but you can access the PDF of Aves 2 (2011) - the article starts on page 21 with section 6 on this hybrid at page 26. 



Mallard Anas platyrhynchos
Northern Shoveler Anas clypeata

4 comments:

  1. Recent photos of a male from southern Bavaria, Germany, can be found here:
    http://www.ornitho.de/index.php?m_id=54&mid=195953
    Further photos of this individual are available.
    Regards,
    Johannes Honold

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    Replies
    1. Nice one Johannes, great bird! I have now updated this page to include your photos. Thank you very much!

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  2. A few years ago at rutland water, I witnessed a male mallard and female shoveler swimming about as though a couple. At the time i wonderd if they were a breeding pair but have only just thought to investigate.

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