Wednesday 16 April 2014

Mallard x Green-winged Teal

Mallard x Green-winged Teal hybrids and Mallard x Eurasian Teal hybrids (the Green-winged Teal hybrids are top left and lower right) - copyright Joern Lehmhus
(plate ID: 0760)


Joern's plate illustrates the variability in the head pattern of Mallard x Teal hybrids.  His plate is based on photos of 16 birds.  Most of these were Mallard x Eurasian Teal but the two wild Mallard x Green-winged Teal hybrids are also shown here (top left and bottom right).  The head patterns shown by those birds were also shown by Mallard x Eurasian Teal - we would need more examples to confirm that Mallard x Green-winged Teal shows the same extent of variation as Mallard x Eurasian Teal.

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

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