Ugly duckling or???

[tich007mt]

This duck was with a crowd of Mallards so is probably a mongrel mallard of some kind - has shades of Mandarin in it??

[aeshna5]

No Mallard in it at all. It's a regular drake Manadarin going into eclipse plumage when they moult all those glamorous feathers + resemble the female, so this individual is in a transitional state.

All wildfowl become flightless for a few weeks while their flight feathers are replaced.

[tich007mt]

Thanks Aeshna, when I first saw it I thought Mandarin association but didn't know about this moulting stage - you are a veritable fount of knowledge!!