When I arranged to visit southeastern Arizona I told my guide, Jake Thompson, that I wanted to see a Mexican duck. He arranged for a short visit to Patagonia Lake to see that one species. He parked the car, walked down a little path to the lake and pointed them out immediately. Very quick and easy. Birds of the World notes that it is the "least known and most misunderstood of all North American waterfowl...It...is the only North American puddle duck to have been listed as an endangered species...[and] its overall population size may be among the smallest of any North American waterfowl." It is well named as about 98% of the total population are found in Mexico. It does interbreed with the Mallard and the first one we saw had a whitish head that Jake said was likely a Mallard/Mexican duck mix.
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| She was quite handsome and I liked her better than the pure Mexican ducks. |
It is mainly brown with a blue speculum edged with white. The male has a brighter yellow bill than the female.
There are concerns that it may ultimately disappear because of hybridizing with mallards. It was listed as an endangered species in the U.S. for about 11 years, but was removed in 1978. They can be tricky to distinguish from mallards. The male mallard has a bright green head and dark chest. Both sexes of the Mexican duck have dark, mottled-brown color with a buff-colored head and neck. The male Mexican duck has a solid, bright yellow-olive bill. The female mallard has a mottled orange and black bill. Mexican ducks lack the white-bordered tail feathers and curled black feathers on the tail that male mallards have.
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| Unlike the other species I've looked at so far, it ranges further north in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico and into west Texas. |
I thought "puddleduck" (as in "Mrs. Jemima Puddleduck") was a name made up by Beatrix Potter.
ReplyDeleteThe “Mexican duck” described here refers to the **Mexican Duck**, a closely related form of the mallard that is often difficult to distinguish in the field due to frequent hybridization.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes this account interesting is how localized and subtle the species is in nature—despite being relatively “easy” to observe at places like Patagonia Lake, its identification is complicated by interbreeding with **mallards**, which can produce mixed features such as the whitish-headed individual described. This hybridization is one reason why its conservation status and population estimates have been historically debated.
BirdLife and ornithological references often highlight it as one of the more misunderstood North American waterfowl, with the vast majority of its population concentrated in Mexico and only small, scattered groups in the U.S. More context on its ecology and status can be found here spinogambino casino