Saw these ducks today. What are they?

[Diamond88]

My duck and I have finally arrived in Long Beach, California, after a six-day drive (complete with sight-seeing) from Chicago. Earlier today, we were in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and we spotted these black ducks in the lake. Any idea what they are? They were pretty neat looking.







There were plenty of mallards on the lake too, but I saw a group of four ducks sticking together that definitely appeared to be some domestic variety. They were bigger than the mallards and different colors. I don't know much about ducks, so even though I knew they weren't mallards, I wasn't sure what kinds they were. Any guesses?








Fortunately, they're being cared for very well in Lake Havasu City. The weather is nice year-round so they certainly won't freeze, and it's very touristy so people are always around to feed them. I actually saw a stand selling duck food! And, they seem to have integrated very well into the mallard flock. It seems like the one and only success story of domestic ducks living in the wild. Of course, the poor things probably can't fly.

 

[ancona_crazy]

They look like a black swedish/khaki cambell cross in some of the pics and the mallards looked like they had khaki cambell/swedish/mallard. I have no idea about the first pic. The bill looks like a wild strain to me. But I'm not sure....

 

[ancona_crazy]

Oh, and maybe a purebred buff drake. Who knows? Barnyard mix mingling with wild fowl?

 

[learycow]

The lighter one is a buff drake.
The one white white on his chest looks like a swedish (possibly a cross), and the other one looks like a cross as well, possibly a rouen drake.
Its so sad that people do that. But there are too many misinformed people out there who just assume ducks can live on a pond. They don't know or don't think about how domestic ducks can't fly away to keep themselves safe from predators, and they don't all know how to forage and need to be properly fed.

 

[Quack Addict]

The first pic is a coot.

 

[Diamond88]

Thanks for the info! I'd never seen a coot before. They were really neat. I did feel really bad for the poor dumped duckies. On the plus side, if they had to be dumped somewhere, this seemed like a relatively safe spot, at least compared to some pond out in the wilderness. It's a tourist town so it's pretty suburban without many predators, and they get fed by the tourists multiple times a day. I hope they'll be okay!

 

[lakehavasubirde]

I live in Lake Havasu and walk the channel daily. The two ducks are a pair of Cayugas I believe they have lived here for 3 years of so and reside happily on the boat rental dock. Very spoiled . I looked them up, they are a type of poultry duck from New York originally I think. also we have hundreds of Coots(MudHens) each winter. Very noisy.

 

[Diamond88]

I'm glad to hear the domestic ducks are well cared for! They seemed to get along fine with the wild mallards.