Wood duck : Cotswold WP : 08 Nov 2015

Aix sponsa. Male (foreground). Also known as: Carolina duck; Carolina wood duck.

Not sure of identity of background bird.

Waterfowl / flamingo lake.

We need FBBird here...

At first I thought it was an out-of-colour/immature Carolina male but now I think its a hybrid. Phillipine x Carolina? I believe it has one Carolina(or maybe Mandarin) parent anyway.

Wood Duck....

Definitely x Carolina -- Mandarin do not produce hybrids because they have a different number of chromosomes from any other duck. I'm thinking the other parent is one of the mallard group, possibly Philippine, going to look at their website.

I knew Mandarin and Carolina can't cross for the Chromosone reason, but not that Mandarin never cross at all- something new to learn everyday!

Their site doesn't seem to include a list of the waterfowl they hold, but the rear end of this bird does remind me of Philipine Duck.

See the link below

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1026&context=johnsgard

for an interesting paper on some alleged mandarin duck hybrids

Here's a shot of the cheat-board next to the lake from back in April 2015. No Philippine duck though I've not checked all the others yet to see if it's one from this lot!

Wood Duck.......

I'm actually now thinking Rosybill x Carolina

I have a feeling it could be a Mallard x Yellow spot bill

Just for future reference for those interested here's a good web page for Hybrid Waterfowl -

Hybrid Ducks (gobirding.eu)

Wood Duck....

Not Mallard x Spotbill, thus bird has a crest. Looks like a lot of female hybrids which gave Carolina as one parent.
That paper on putative Mandarin hybrids is interesting, but they all look like aberrant, probably hormonally challenged, Mandarins to me.

Good work. A bit like choosing from a restaurant menu here... of course they might have had Philipine Duck in the past too. Doesn't the speculum indicate the non-Carolina parent was a Mallard/Teal type?