# What is this duck???



## HEN SLAYER (Oct 11, 2013)

I shot this thinking it was a hen...but it turned out to be a stupid drake mallard with what??? I knew I could come here for some EXPERT support!


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## Gunner73 (Dec 3, 2007)

Looks like a drake Mallard


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## hamernhonkers (Sep 28, 2007)

That's a late hatch bird if he still looks like that.


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## HEN SLAYER (Oct 11, 2013)

He has a big head on him though


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## Sawbillslayer (Oct 24, 2013)

I will tell you what you want a hear, IT IS A CROSS DRESSER!


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## horn hunter (Oct 30, 2013)

Some people just don't have the common sense God gave a squirrel... SMH....


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## Spry Yellowdog (Sep 8, 2007)

To me it appears to be a dead duck.....

Spry


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## Crndgs8 (Sep 14, 2013)

Looks like an old fashioned mallard. Colored up a little funny.
But, at a closer look, them orange feet have a hint of possibly some other breeding.


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## duckkillerclyde (Mar 26, 2012)

I really hope this was a joke but just in case it isn't here is a link.

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/duckdist/eclipse.htm

I feel it's complete disrespect to the game we chase when you don't even know the life cycle of it. Again, I hope this thread was just a joke.


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## HEN SLAYER (Oct 11, 2013)

I hope your kidding duckkillerclyde. First of all it's way to late in the season to be eclipsed... Second of all if it where eclipsed the head wouldn't be plumed like a huge drake mallard. And I feel bad for you not understanding that most the people on this forum don't have a clue what is wrong with this drake mallard... Because from the sound of it You certainly don't have a clue...


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## Fin-S-Fish (Nov 5, 2007)

Hammerinhonkers nailed it dead on. A late hatch bird, the result of a renesting attempt likely hatched in July or later. That drake is only a few months old so the plumage is juvenile eclipse, it's not adult eclipse. The juvenile plumage didn't molt properly and won't fall out till June. It will have to go through the entire summer and then fall molt to color up entirely. It doesn't matter that it's december, those feathers are not going to molt till the june eclipse molt.


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## king eider (Aug 20, 2009)

Fin-S-Fish said:


> Hammerinhonkers nailed it dead on. A late hatch bird, the result of a renesting attempt likely hatched in July or later. That drake is only a few months old so the plumage is juvenile eclipse, it's not adult eclipse. The juvenile plumage didn't molt properly and won't fall out till June. It will have to go through the entire summer and then fall molt to color up entirely. It doesn't matter that it's december, those feathers are not going to molt till the june eclipse molt.


^^This^^

Look at the tail on that bird. rattier than hell i bet! probably had to knock some egg off its rear end to boot!!


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## duckkillerclyde (Mar 26, 2012)

HEN SLAYER said:


> I hope your kidding duckkillerclyde. First of all it's way to late in the season to be eclipsed... Second of all if it where eclipsed the head wouldn't be plumed like a huge drake mallard. And I feel bad for you not understanding that most the people on this forum don't have a clue what is wrong with this drake mallard... Because from the sound of it You certainly don't have a clue...


 -BaHa!- -BaHa!- -BaHa!- -BaHa!- -BaHa!- -BaHa!- -BaHa!-

:frusty:


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

hamernhonkers said:


> That's a late hatch bird if he still looks like that.


Bingo!

If mallards get their eggs robbed they will lay again, and again.

My dad had a retirement cabin on a river slough. Every year a mallard nested in the flower garden at the edge of the water. Dad would rob eggs from the nest and eat them. They were very good, dark orange yokes, lots of flavor, like any fertile egg. The hen mallard would lay another nest-full of eggs and incubate them again. He'd rob the nest numerous times and then let the hen raise a brood. In the fall that brood would eclipse much later than the rest of the mallards around the cabin.

Uh...the OP changed the original picture.

.

.


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