So what *is* he?

[TomCahalan]

That looks like he has "dusky mallard" coloration to me.

Dusky ducklings are dark. Overall, your drake looks a lot like an adult female dusky, which seems reasonable for a juvenile dusky drake.

If we assume that your drake is dusky mallard colored then he can't have a purebred swede as a parent. Dusky is recessive and swedes don't carry it. Swedes do carry dominant black, which your drake doesn't have.

 

[Jenjenners]

That looks like he has "dusky mallard" coloration to me.

Dusky ducklings are dark. Overall, your drake looks a lot like an adult female dusky, which seems reasonable for a juvenile dusky drake.

If we assume that your drake is dusky mallard colored then he can't have a purebred swede as a parent. Dusky is recessive and swedes don't carry it. Swedes do carry dominant black, which your drake doesn't have.

Cool. That led me down a rabbit hole of research into genetics and dusky mallard coloring. Very interesting!

To complicate things, though, I live in Hawaii—so while there are a few introduced mallard/Rouen types around in very specific places (like a specific pond in our town quite a ways away from where I got these guys..and maybe a few backyard farms here and there?), they are not really in the wild here. So ducks are usually pretty restricted to whatever breeds are in their own yards without any wild ducks coming in...but not impossible. I don’t know the history of the parent ducks other than ‘we have runners, Pekins, and Swedish’ so who knows, maybe their Swedish stock was not pure? Hawaii I think banned duck imports a few years back, so it is not unthinkable that some backyard breeds are interbred and far from pure at this point.

I don’t care of course, lol, I just find him beautiful and intriguingly different from what I expected!

 

[HalfWayUpAMountain]

As a duckling, he looks very much like my Campbell Nero ducklings.

When I saw the first picture my first thought was 'ooh handsome boy !' And then, campbell nero with a heavy waft of mallard.

Lovely pics too btw !

 

[Jenjenners]

I’m noticing now he is starting to molt out the ‘female’ feathers, and I’m seeing gray ones coming in on his back—so perhaps dusky mallard/Rouen indeed! Will update once his plumage all comes in!