This guy has been in Pennsylvania for over a month now. The juxtaposition between this Florida-to-South-Texas duck and the Canada geese in the background is wild to me. While it was great to see one of my favorite duck species, the mottled duck is threatened in the south by genetic swamping by mallards. Some folks I’ve talked to estimate that we will no longer have pure mottled ducks in the next 40-50 years due to hybridization. This guy has a bit of white at the bottom of his speculum, but it’s not too much for a pure mottled duck drake. I commonly identify hybrids, so it was wonderful to photograph this duck.

July 2023. Ducks are my people.