Domestic Mallard

[wezwez]

On the BTO website I upload my birdwatching data and for Mallards it comes up with either a Mallard or Domestic Mallard option. A quick look on the net for a definition of this has confused me a bit, it seems that domestic Mallards are either those that are owned or living wild and descended from domestic stock. Or those that are selectivly bred and escape into the wild giving a variation to what i would class as a true mallard type. I've seen a few that have the green head but with white/dark brown chests and dark body colouring. Also white with orange bills and all of various sizes. My problem is how to identify them and how to class them.

Steve

[RoyW]

Pretty much any domestic duck will be a Mallard (the exceptions being Muscovy Ducks - which also come in a variety of different breeds, and are occasionally hybridised with Mallards to produce "mule" ducks).
This means that if you know the different plumages of wild ducks well, you are usually fairly safe calling anything else 'domestic Mallards'. You do have to be aware of the possibility of seeing ducks from other species that have escaped from collections, and hybrids between different species turn up from time to time to add to the confusion - but domestic Mallards are far more common than these.

Type "Manky Mallard" into an internet search engine and look at the 10000birds.com page that will be at or near the top of the results to see a good selection of some of the different types of domestic Mallard that you may ecome across - and/or search for "Mallard breeds" and look at breeders websites.


Edit: The 10000birds "Manky Mallard" page seems to have been re-done at the end of February this year. It used to show examples of 'pure', wild Mallards at the top, which are now gone (which is a shame). There are also a few obvious errors on the 'new' page, the most serious being that (1) a large white 'Pekin type' Mallard in the third photo is labelled as a goose, and (2) the 'Magpie' is actually a Muscovy Duck, not a Mallard.
The web page will still give you a good idea of the variety shown by domestic Mallards though!

[wezwez]

Thanks for the reply, had a quick look at 10000birds but will have a good read through later. Being pretty much a novice I'm finding the hybrids and different breeds a challenge to understand but also at the same time very interesting.

Steve