Hi, I was wondering if this bird is a mallard or something else? I’m not too sure and Merlin bird ID didn’t seem sure either. Thanks!
Hi
I wondered-
White cheeked pintail X Orange Billed Pintail ?
S
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Given S's response and the fact that there is a metal ring on the right leg I think you are safe to go with an exotic that has gone float about from a collection
Cin J
im happy with it being a white cheeked pintail pure bred (not mudblood!) eclipse male or female probably female
Certainly not a Female Gadwall.
no lol not anything like a gadwell! as people keep calling them
I am not happy with that personally. Do you have any examples to compare?
i jst googled white cheeked pintail images and it looks pretty good. Bill is spot on, found one with the speculum showing (wings open) i might be wrong. Its the problem with exotic duck collections historically and present...........they keep escaping and breeding with anything..........never mind. cant be helped!
The trouble with that method of i.d. is you are entirely reliant on the posted photo being correctly labelled. A big flaw in that method. It is important for any i.d. request posted is that if someone wants to help by internet searching (which is what the poster can also be capable of doing), to state that when 'recommending the answer'. Looking up and assessing images in books and internet photos and giving an opinion, is effectively a guess.