Subject: [Tweeters] Odd Mallards
Date: Mon Oct 26 14:33:12 PDT 2020
From: Jeffrey Bryant - jbryant_68 at yahoo.com

Keith,
The second picture looks just like an intersex Mallard I had last year in western Washington. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S53393579 It's apparently rare but regular, particularly in ducks, and particularly in Mallards. The research on this phenomenon is not extensive, unfortunately, but I do recall pulling up an article last year positing that as females age, their estrogen levels drop, and the testosterone that remains directs the body to produce the default male characteristics. At least some of these birds are still capable of female reproduction.
Can't dig up that article, but this site has some nice pics of intersex ducks:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/intersex-ducks

Jeff Bryant
Seattle
jbryant_68 at yahoo

Sent from my iPad
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