Black is beautiful

mike braden

mike braden

Well-known member
You guys on the left coast may have your pintails and widgeon, but black is beautiful!!! I had the opportunity to take this bird this morning but I let my friend take it instead. He has only shot a few birds this year and it's a great day as long as someone shoots.

He is planning on making this his first mount. Teal are his favorite with the Black running a very close second. I tend to agree........

What a beautiful head and bill on this one.

blackduck122110.jpg

 
Beautiful bird. There must be a big push of migrators moving through with the colder weather the past couple weeks. Every black duck I have shot in the last two weeks have been big, prime drakes. I had one two weeks ago that was almost as big as a brant.
 
My friend shot one last week with me that was 1.5 times the size of the Mallards that we had. I picked it up out of the water and was like WOW! He was a brusier. Been seeing lots of Blacks this year. Not a lot of Teal in my areas though
 
That is a gorgeous drake, Mike. I do have one question for you. The one black feather right in the middle on top of the tail that looks like it could be the start of a mallard's curl----is that normal? I do not know. I had no idea that they were that much larger than a mallard.
Al
 
Al, I can't tell from that picture it that is the start of a curl, but with the white in the speculum, I am wondering if it a hybrid? Blacks do not have curls as far as I have seen.

Dave
 
That's a hybrid.

The darkening of the upper tail coverts and the start of the curl are mallard traits.

A friend sent in some wings to USFWS last year that looked exactly like the one on this black duck. The information that was sent back said that any white on the speculum of a black duck indicates interbreeding with mallards, and therefore, his duck was a hybrid.

I think I read somewhere that something like 70% of blacks have mallard in them somewhere.

Momma's gotta stop slummin with the green headed park ducks down at the docks.

-D
 
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Not to start the hybrid thing all over again like the Craig S post.

A black duck can have a faint white line posterior to the speculum. My friend shot a Black last week that was very large and much darker, Black in fact, not the brown that they are supposed to be even though they are called blacks. There was no white on/near the speculum at all.

I am going to try and research what a black hybrid typically looks like. It can't be something as little as a line should be 2mm thick and since it is 2.5 it is a hybrid


This bird was of normal size and color variant. This is NOT a Hybrid Black.


American Black Duck From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search


American Black ducks are similar to mallards in size, and resemble the female mallard in coloration, although the black duck's plumage is darker. The male and female black duck are generally similar in appearance, but the male's bill is yellow while the females is a dull green. The head is slightly lighter brown than the dark brown body, and the speculum are iridescent violet-blue with predominantly black margins. The black duck has orange legs and dark eyes. In flight, the white underwings can be seen in contrast to the dark brown body. The behaviour and voice are the same as for Mallard


Please read below that a black can have one faint line or none. I believe that the hybrid ones are the ones that have the anterior white line to the speculum that the hen mallard has.





 
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Al,

My friend has a final attack boat and there is a little compartment area of the motor well and the bird was sitting there after being shot. He was butt down so I think that the feather just curled from sitting like that for a bit. The Black ducks do not have a curl tail feather like a Mallard.

I believe that he is mounting this one so I will post pics of that when it happens.

P.S. thanks for correctly calling this a drake which it is. There has been some confusion on other post on how to tell the difference between a drake and hen black duck
 
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Dave,

If you already bagged a legit black for the day, would you be ok shooting this one as well and then try to tell a CO that it is a hybrid so as to not be caught with 2 blacks for the day?
 
Mike, I will never put myself in a position to make that argument. If I shot that bird, I would count it as my black duck and not shoot another. I will always err on the conservative side. I don't need another duck enough to fight a battle.... figure I will make an honest mistake sometime and hope for leniency!

Dave
 
Dave D,

I was asking that question to Dave S. Sorry for the mix up. He seemed more certain that it was a hybrid. You were more or less asking.
 
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I'm definately no expert, but from this side of the bleachers, I would say if that duck has any mallard genes in it, its on from his 6th cousins' mothers' sisters' grandmother, twice removed, on his moms'moms' side.
 
They sure are beautiful!
I just wish we got a few more down here on the Gulf Coast. I've only seen one since I started hunting here in 1997, and my partner killed it after I missed it!
We do get Mottled ducks, but they seem to be even more wary than Black ducks, once the season opens, the mottled ducks disapear into little, in-accessible marsh ponds and stay put!
 
Beautiful it is. I just got a beauty back from Brian Rhodes's brother, he is a taxidermist.
Once you go black you never go back. That means one a day?
-
 
The blacks are almost as plentiful as the Mallards are in some places here. Only allowed one but each one is a trophy in my opinion.
 
they are the best,went out 2 weeks ago and actually shot a banded one,first banded duck I ever shot and it was a black,38 more and I will catch up to my sons count
 
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