What kind of ducks??

We got our first ducklings (8 of them....couldn't resist they were all so cute) at TS about 6 weeks ago. We have been able to figure out what types all are except these two. They are the biggest of the group (even bigger then the 2 pekins). The one on the left was solid black as a baby so we assumed Cayuga but as he feathered out it became apparent that he isn't. The one on the right has a ring around his throat area and white markings on his wing with a stripe of blue feathers. Their backs look very similar to our Khaki (lace like markings) but they are MUCH bigger and much darker. I am guessing Hybrids of some kind... and ideas??

Whatever they are, they're pretty. The one with the white tipped wings looks like a black mallard, he's gorgeous!

Virus said:

Whatever they are, they're pretty. The one with the white tipped wings looks like a black mallard, he's gorgeous!

Click to expand...

Uhh no it's not a black mallard actually. Black mallards are extremely rare, usually coming from a case of melanism, which is very uncommon for mallards. Black mallards are so rare that in the USA I am now the only one with true black mallards. I bred them myself and it came from a pair of normal colored mallards that i had decided to breed that year. So once being in the breeding pen from february to the beginning of may i finally stopped taking her eggs and allowed her to hatch the eggs that were fertilized by that male. All of the babies were normal except one strange black duckling that I had taken to the vet to be examined and had the vet send DNA samples to be genetically tested to prove that it was pure bred, then I also documented the Pedigree ( I've told this story like a million times you get the picture)


So to know if they are black mallards they will have to be genetically tested and you would have to have lineage proving that they are pure bred.

What you have are some kind of mixed breeds, or golden 300s second generation so mixed breed. ( your duck is also much too large if it has out grown pekins to be a black mallard)

These are black mallards:




My first black mallard fighting one of her sisters.

a pose by the pond when my black mallard was about a year or 2 old.

this is my original black mallards 3rd set off offspring before they were completely feathered out, one female is the normal grey pattern seen in mallards, and the other is a black mallard that was just beginning to get all of her feathers in.



Sorry for the small rant

Anyway congratulation you do have beautiful birds.