Hybrid ducks

William Reinicke said:
Dude its a very cool bird. When I killed my first, everyone told me it was a once in a lifetime bird. 4 years later I killed my second. Then about 5 years after my second, we were working a pair of mallard and I was actually shooter on the right. Birds presenting Left to Right. The back bird just looked a little odd to me, and I shot the back bird. My buddy was a good enough shot, he shot the front bird but instantly says "Dude what the heck". I told him that back bird is different and sure enough dog brought back that third hybrid. What is sickening... We were working a huge group of geese in a little water hole at the end of season. Again, targeting a super cool snow/canada cross. Even better than the one I posted earlier. Saw that goose in that same hole 3 weekends in a row. Bet we worked in 1500-2000 geese looking for this one special. As we are sitting there waiting for geese to come back, we were killing some mallard coming in. All of a sudden, another one lands right on the ice, away from every other bird and decoy. Just lone trophy right there, 30 yards from our layout blinds. I should of just shot it, but I told my buddy, "theres your hybrid, kill it." Instead of reaching for my gun, i grabbed my phone to film it, and he barely hit that bird. It went down but wounded. We searched for about an hour with the dog, never found it. Still makes me sick as we should have 4 successful pinards killed over the last 20 years. I love targeting odd ball birds, more than any leg band. There are more around than I think people think, and its amazing what you can find by glassing big big groups of birds if the opportunity presents itself.

Wigeon are boring for me. I can end tons of my hunts in 10 minutes if i targeted wigeon. But I have sifted through literally thousands upon thousands looking for a eurasian and never found one. Ive killed quite a few good storms but never have found that eurasian. Again, I would love to successfully put a brewers on the wall one day as well. The ultimate trophy though would be a blue phase ross and Ive seen only handful in my lifetime. One of my buddies did kill one, got it home to wrap it and before he could get it in the freezer, his cat jumped in the back of his truck and completely plucked the feathers off the breast of the bird. I was sick for him. Chasing these odd balls gets addicting. Congrats on the super cool bird once again.
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I have 2 thoughts on this....

1. Do the world a favor and shoot the cat.

2. You need someone to thin those wigeon out for you, I'm your Huckleberry.
 
JasonM said:
I have 2 thoughts on this....

1. Do the world a favor and shoot the cat.
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Not sure what happened to the cat. This was like 4ish years ago if memory serves me correct. An absolute bummer for sure.
JasonM said:
2. You need someone to thin those wigeon out for you, I'm your Huckleberry.
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Lol people across the country go wild for wigeon. Ive got to the point I shoot them if looking for a 6th duck to finish a limit but ive had days where I could of shot 300 wigeon. Ive talked to quite a few people who think they are hard to hunt. They are dumb as rocks in some places i hunt. Ive shot into wigeon, and called back the same flock just to be shot at again. They decoy to pretty much everything here as well. I have videos of wigeon, flocks of 100-200 setting down into decoys. No swings, no begging, they just see the decoys and every single one of them commit. Very odd thing in one of the areas I hunt. Just so dumb and easy to hunt. See if i can dig up some old wigeon pics Ive got into. Absolutely nothing special in my mind of wigeon hunting.
 
William Reinicke said:
Not sure what happened to the cat. This was like 4ish years ago if memory serves me correct. An absolute bummer for sure.

Lol people across the country go wild for wigeon. Ive got to the point I shoot them if looking for a 6th duck to finish a limit but ive had days where I could of shot 300 wigeon. Ive talked to quite a few people who think they are hard to hunt. They are dumb as rocks in some places i hunt. Ive shot into wigeon, and called back the same flock just to be shot at again. They decoy to pretty much everything here as well. I have videos of wigeon, flocks of 100-200 setting down into decoys. No swings, no begging, they just see the decoys and every single one of them commit. Very odd thing in one of the areas I hunt. Just so dumb and easy to hunt. See if i can dig up some old wigeon pics Ive got into. Absolutely nothing special in my mind of wigeon hunting.
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Use to be the bread and butter marsh duck around here, right up until I really started hunting. I'd say mid 90s. I've killed a decent amount but never a ton. My "Holy Grail" duck would beca stud euro. Something about them I've always loved. A big mature drake is a dang pretty duck. I couldn't care less about killing mallards.

You emailed me a video several years ago of wigeon eating you up. I may have deleted it now but I use to watch it occasionally.
 
What's fascinating to me in this thread, is the vivid colors on the presumed black/mallard hybrids. I've seen a good number of obvious hybrids, but don't recall such vivid color on the head. That's what threw me off early on. Maybe the ones I've seen weren't full plumage birds. Strange if that is true, as I/we shoot our fair share of ducks every year going back to the 60's. A head scratcher. Next time I get a hybrid, I'll be interested to send in a sample to DuckDNA as Brad suggested.
 
SJ Fairbank said:
What's fascinating to me in this thread, is the vivid colors on the presumed black/mallard hybrids. I've seen a good number of obvious hybrids, but don't recall such vivid color on the head. That's what threw me off early on. Maybe the ones I've seen weren't full plumage birds. Strange if that is true, as I/we shoot our fair share of ducks every year going back to the 60's. A head scratcher. Next time I get a hybrid, I'll be interested to send in a sample to DuckDNA as Brad suggested.
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Out of all the hybrids I've shot, I've only got 2 of the 50-50 blend black x mallard cross. The nicest thing about the ones I've killed is the breast color - it is a 50-50 mix of mallard and black color with darker spotting.
 
Oh I forgot… there’s the Aflac duck we shot one morning as well. My buddy actually killed it. No joke it came right in with mallard but it was like the fat kid in PE class. She/He just couldn’t keep up. Always in the back of the group just trying and quacking with frustration non stop as this group worked the decoys. We swung those birds 2-3 times and they sat down in the decoys. Then it dropped in and as it set down over the decoys I told my buddy to shoot it. Amazing it could fly, and it was giant compared to other mallard we killed that morning. Not a hybrid, just a farm duck gone wild.
 

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tod osier said:
Out of all the hybrids I've shot, I've only got 2 of the 50-50 blend black x mallard cross. The nicest thing about the ones I've killed is the breast color - it is a 50-50 mix of mallard and black color with darker spotting.
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The hybrids can be cool looking birds. I've seen a couple of strange looking ones that I didn't know where they came from. Of course, nothing beats a big ole' Mallard/Muscovy cross for confusing color patterns and sheer ugly kid looks.

I'd be interested to see a photo album of various hybrids and their DNA pedigree. Maybe that's in the works with the DuckDNA program?
 
William Reinicke said:
Oh I forgot… there’s the Aflac duck we shot one morning as well. My buddy actually killed it. No joke it came right in with mallard but it was like the fat kid in PE class. She/He just couldn’t keep up. Always in the back of the group just trying and quacking with frustration non stop as this group worked the decoys. We swung those birds 2-3 times and they sat down in the decoys. Then it dropped in and as it set down over the decoys I told my buddy to shoot it. Amazing it could fly, and it was giant compared to other mallard we killed that morning. Not a hybrid, just a farm duck gone wild.
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Luckily my pet ducks can’t fly lol
 

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justin boucher said:
If i didnt already freeze it i would send in for a dna kit. But im sure it being in the freezer may alter something
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go on the duckdna website apply for the hybrid kit and when you take it to the taxidermist cut a bit of the tongue for the sample or have you taxidermist do it when he gets ready to mount cut it out. It doesn't affect your mount in anyway.
 
Wyatt Russo said:
Oh yeah you gotta see the two males goin at her on my lawn quite the sight for the neighbors but the eggs are delicious
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Naturally I had to Google this. I thought duck eggs would be smaller but they are actually bigger. We have a few Amish communities in MN; next time I go to their market I will look into buying some.
RM
 
roy brewington said:
Yea, i,ve killed 2 Black duck hybrids so far this year on river I hunt actually in past 2 weeks. That's not a normal place to find hybrids in past years. Our Bayfront is where Blk/Mallard hybrids are more prevalent. Each time they came in with a mate that showed no outward signs of being mixed with mallard.
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Not a hybrid, but I did kill this really cool Eurasian Green Wing the end of last season
 

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jode hillman said:
Not a hybrid, but I did kill this really cool Eurasian Green Wing the end of last season
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I definitely hope you got that one mounted!

I wonder how many get killed that people don't realize they are Eurasians looking so similar to an American, not so different like the 2 wigeon. Saw a short on YouTube of a guy showing his son with his I believe first duck. Was a stud Eurasian greenwing. He never said anything about that so I don't think he realized it. Guy is supposed to be a "professional" duck hunter too.
 
JasonM said:
I definitely hope you got that one mounted!

I wonder how many get killed that people don't realize they are Eurasians looking so similar to an American, not so different like the 2 wigeon. Saw a short on YouTube of a guy showing his son with his I believe first duck. Was a stud Eurasian greenwing. He never said anything about that so I don't think he realized it. Guy is supposed to be a "professional" duck hunter too.
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I know for a fact, my gunning partner shot one 10 years ago and we had no idea what it was until after he ate it. I knew something was different with this one right away with the white barring in the scapulars.

Then I noticed the lack of the chest stripe, tighter vermiculation and very prominent eye bar.
 
jode hillman said:
I know for a fact, my gunning partner shot one 10 years ago and we had no idea what it was until after he ate it. I knew something was different with this one right away with the white barring in the scapulars.

Then I noticed the lack of the chest stripe, tighter vermiculation and very prominent eye bar.
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Probably 25-30 years ago when I was a teenager a buddy and I killed a mess of teal end of the season, last day I think. Some of the prettiest drakes I've ever seen. Didn't know euros existed at the time. Looking back part of me will always wonder if they were or just late season studs.
 
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