It must be some sort of hybrid, but who its parents are I have no idea!! It was twice the size of even a large mallard and had a mate with much the same size and colouring but without the feather cap! It was living happily alongside mallards, hybrids, moorhens, coots and gulls on a reed-fringed pond alongside the coast in Anglesey. His cap really was feather - at first glance I thought it was a fungus!!
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Lesser spotted Afro Ducks? lol
Cheers
AL
If its no fun Yer no doin it right!
Hi Sparrow
I think it might be a Shoveler or Shoveler cross with a bad hairdo. Whatever it is I think he should sue the hairdresser.
Regards
TJ
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
Hi all,
These are "Crested Ducks"; not a species, but simply the result of selective breeding. The "crest" is the result of a mutation, which occurs in a number of species (in this case, Mallard, from which all domestic ducks are descended), and consists of fatty tissue which emerges from a hole in the skull.
MC:-)
Hi all, and thanks for the comments - I think his hairdresser should win an award! It looked like an old fashioned powder puff stuck on his head and was rather fetching. He was very proud of himself, and very vocal when a child appeared with some bread.
Thanks Micky for the ID. I've had a look on the internet and there are some extraordinary variations.
I had o idea what it was (but thanks MC for shining light on it!) but couldn't get over how different it looked. I've never seen anything like that before!