White/pale headed mallard at Col.Sam Smith

[ravynne40]

Today at Col. Sam Smith Park there was a duck on the Lake, she (least I think it was a she) had a very pale head color

here's what she looked like ..now I know this is a mallard family because of the speculum..she was very friendly too My friend and hubby were skipping stones into the lake and she thought they were tossing food..poor thing
is this common with young female mallards to have such pale heads? The other females were much darker.



Irene

[JW Mills]

I believe it's a male mallard in eclipse plumage

[thouc]

I actually think it's a male (yellow bill) American Black Duck as the head is noticable lighter colored than the body and the speculum (the shiny thing on the wing) is violet bordered with black (bright blue bordered with white in Mallards).

/Thomas

[ravynne40]

oh wow thank you Thomas! I completely forgot about the Black Ducks! I just double checked on wiki..you are sooo right!
not sure why I thought it was a mallard...(time to sleep)