Florida November 2022 Part II - Mottled Ducks

[Randy]

The following day we went to Fort De Soto Park, which stretches into the gulf on a peninsula. There are some ponds en route and we stopped and I managed my first lifer of the trip - mottled ducks. It seems hard to find "pure" mottled ducks in the area and with my initial uncropped photos the sighting seemed to have not been accepted. However, after cropping and zooming in it seems there are at least 3 or 4 pure mottled ducks. The key ID features to separate from a hybrid with mallard seem to be:

1. No curl in the tail
2. No white border to the speculum
3. Dark breast with no rufous
4. And some other more subtle clues

Here's a thorough review if anyone is interested:

s3.amazonaws.com/is-ebird-wordpress-prod-s3/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/eBird_Muddled_Ducks.pdf?_gl=1*pad4k5*_ga*MTY1NDQ0ODM5OS4xNjcwMzAxNzk2*_ga_QR4NVXZ8BM*MTY3MTU1OTUwMi4xMC4xLjE2NzE1NTk4NDcuNTQuMC4w&_ga=2.262567183.2074231795.1671555074-1654448399.1670301796

The bird in the middle and the two in the front are the ones I felt were "pure" Mottled Ducks and were accepted as such:


Mottled Duck at Duck Ponds & Tierra Verde by Randy Walker


Mottled Duck at Duck Ponds & Tierra Verde by Randy Walker


Mottled Duck at Duck Ponds & Tierra Verde by Randy Walker

[old coot]

Yeah, I had a feeling you weren't talking about the taller white birds with the long non-duck like bill. Klaus