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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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?
