Record is for the duck on the left. The duck being held by the woman in the black jumper is a pure Pacific Black Duck for comparison. This duck was released immediately after the comparison photos were taken.
The other was removed by the Pacific Black Duck Conservation Group as part of a mallard removal working bee: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pacificblackduckconservationgroup
The hybrid has a green/yellow bill (harder to see in this photo), patchy facial markings, and legs are a little bit too orange. This one also had white trims above the speculum.
For comparison, the PBD has a slate-grey bill, no white trim above the speculum, darker legs, defined facial markings and cream face patches. Feathers are normal. PBD uploaded separately: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/190349960
Record is for the duck being held by the woman in the black jumper. This duck was released immediately after the comparison photos were taken.
The other two are PBD x mallard hybrids, caught as part of dumped domestic mallard removal efforts by the Pacific Black Duck Conservation Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pacificblackduckconservationgroup
The first photo's hybrid has a green/yellow bill (harder to see in this photo), patchy facial markings, and legs are a little bit too orange. This one also had white trims above the speculum.
The female in the second and third photos:
Mainly the lower face stripes and cheeks that are different. Both sexes should look like the pure one, a thinner stripe, and Cleary defined cream face patches. The hybrid’s cheek cuts into the cream patch while the pure’s continues to the back of the neck. The hybrid's eye stripe doesn’t surround the eye, which we see a lot with hybrid ducklings. Her crown was a bit too streaked for a female.
Hybrids uploaded separately:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/190350029
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/190350244
Thinking this could be a leucistic bird, potentially a teal or mallard. Maybe even hardhead
Behavior - Feeding
Habitat - Near an artificial water source
Additional comments? - A pair of Pacific Black Ducks feeding in the constructed Whites Creek Wetland, Annandale
Nest present - No
How many? - 2
Waste Water Treatment Ponds. Five Pacific Black Ducks and one Hardhead (White-eyed Duck, swimming on left). Separate observation entered for each species.
Two birds seen feeding in shallow muddy water at the head of Somerset Creek, 7th Brigade park central. Twenty minutes previously I had seen only one duck when walking past that spot; when I came back and checked a second time, I saw two.
Pacific black duck - a number seen. Chestnut teal (three males) are also present. Photo taken along South Tacoma Road, Wyong River.
Dendrocygna eytoni (Eyton, 1838), Plumed Whistling Duck, with Anas superciliosa Gmelin, 1789, Pacific Black Duck, Anseranas semipalmata (Latham, 1798), Magpie Goose, Phalacrocorax sulcirostris (Brandt, 1837), Little Black Cormorant and Vanellus miles (Boddaert, 1783), Masked Lapwing, Tyto Wetlands, Ingham, QLD, 23 December 2011