White-cheeked Pintail x Yellow-billed (Speckled) Teal

 captive White-cheeked Pintail x Yellow-billed Teal hybrid, Halle (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany), 5th October 2014 - copyright Joern Lehmus

(photo ID: 1662)

I think the ranges of the two species involved here do overlap so I suppose wild hybrids are theoretically possible, but both species are frequently found in captivity where hybrids like this are much more likely to be encountered.  Here is one such example.

captive White-cheeked Pintail x Yellow-billed Teal hybrid (same bird as in photo ID 1662 above), Halle (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany), 5th October 2014 - copyright Joern Lehmus

(photo IDs: 1663-1664)

I imagine the next photos show the same bird - at least it's a similar bird at the same zoo.

captive White-cheeked Pintail x Yellow-billed Teal hybrid, Halle Zoo (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany), 21st September 2016 - copyright Joern Lehmus

(photo IDs: 2888-2891)

The only thing that's certain about the next hybrid is that we don't know what it is!  It
superficially resembles Speckled Teal (i.e. Yellow-billed Teal or Andean Teal) but differs in a number of respects.  Most of the differences could be explained by White-cheeked Pintail being a parent, although it shows one or two unexpected features for that hybrid.  Both Yellow-billed Teal (not Andean) and White-cheeked Pintail were present in the collection.

However Joern has expressed some doubt about this ID and found another examples of Speckled Teal x White-cheeked Pintail hybrid which didn't look exactly like this (and subsequently he got photos to support this - see above), so another explanation may be needed.  One suggestion is Yellow-billed Pintail x Andean Teal, but we are not sure at the moment.  The leg colour is perhaps a little paler than would be expected for any combination of these species and perhaps the correct explanation lies in a combination we have not yet considered?

unidentified captive hybrid, possibly White-cheeked Pintail x Yellow-billed Teal, Blakeney Collection (Norfolk, UK), 24th November 2013 - copyright Dave Appleton

(photo IDs: 0338-0345)

unidentified captive hybrid, possibly White-cheeked Pintail x Yellow-billed Teal, Blakeney Collection (Norfolk, UK), 9th November 2013 - copyright Dave Appleton

(photo IDs: 0336-0337)

unidentified captive hybrid, possibly White-cheeked Pintail x Yellow-billed Teal, Blakeney Collection (Norfolk, UK), 7th December 2013 - copyright Dave Appleton

(photo IDs: 0346-0347)

White-cheeked Pintail Anas bahamensis
Yellow-billed Pintail Anas georgica
Andean Teal Anas andium
Yellow-billed Teal Anas flavirostris