Duck ID

When I was taking shots of this duck, I assumed that it was an American Black Duck (which I had never seen before). Upon getting it home, I found that it was quite different from the Black Ducks in the books. The most notable difference is that this one's head is too dark, and the front of its body is too light (I also see no evidence of the violet wing patch in any of the shots). I then thought that it may be a Black Duck-Mallard hybrid, although the example of this in Sibley shows a much more "Mallard-ish" green on the head. However, hybrids vary a lot, and the Black-Mallard cross is still my best guess. I welcome any opinions.

EOS 30D, EF 100-400, 1/1600 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

From the look of the bill, I'm wondering if it is a female ring neck duck?

There is no white eye-ring, which is pretty distinctive for a female ring-neck. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Hi - it's just a "farm Duck" type ie a derivitive of Mallard. A hybrid ABD & Mallard look a lot more female Mallardish and wouldn't show the irregular bill pattern. This bird is way too dark.

davewalters wrote in post #3136500
Hi - it's just a "farm Duck" type ie a derivitive of Mallard. A hybrid ABD & Mallard look a lot more female Mallardish and wouldn't show the irregular bill pattern. This bird is way too dark.

I'll buy that. I just didn't want to ID it as something it wasn't. Thanks.