I found two duck-like birds swimming in the Yarra river. Normally I am pretty good at finding birds in my guide but these ones stumped me. The first one, allWhite.jpg, is a seemingly all-white plumage, yellow-beaked duck. I am confused since there are no all-white ducks in the guide.
It was swimming with the bird somewhatWhite.jpg.
My guess is it's some kind of albino, colour variation, but since it's so different I was having trouble identifying it based on morphology.
Both would be domestic variants derived from mallards, escaped or released, the first probably a Pekin Duck.
Ryu
Canberra
Aiming for DSLR-quality shots with a bridge camera
Ah that explains it. Thank you very much! I didn't know there were these types of ducks in the wild.
Both are i belive variants of english Alsbury Ducks, brought out with convicts now fairly common in most coastal regions of australia But Peking Ducks are nearly identical So please don,t qoute me good birding Jim
These ferals should be collected and taken to a farm where they belong, they not only spread diseases but compete with the native ducks for space and food. They also destroy native frog tadpoles. Some people buy them as ducklings from the local weekend market and when they get big and noisy they dump them in the local park where there are ponds, chasing away our native ducks. There are about twenty of these ferals around a park a visit occasionally and they chase the beautiful native wood and black ducks away and destroy their nests. Some people even feed them, absolutely terrible.
For Australian birds, natives=life, exotics=death, so do them a favour and go plant some natives and save their lives.
HelloBirdy is spot on. Both of these birds are domesticated ducks as in females,not drakes. The first is defineatley a Pekin with the dark beak. Aylesbury do look similar on the water but has a much lighter beak. On land they have a unmistakable deep keel. The 2nd is more than lickley an Indian Runner cross, possibly Campbell cross. End of the day they don't belong in the wild and should be relocated or destroyed. People are so soft these days, rather than deal with them or eat them they just release them.
Soft & unaware of the damage the feral ducks cause, I believe. Australians generally have a long way to go in appreciating their natural environment so I find it greatly encouraging to read the views of doublebar & muz.
On this score I've recently emailed Minister for Borders & Immigration Peter Dutton suggesting that his proposed revamp of the Australian citizenship test include questions about Australia's natural environment. While he's at it he might want to apply my suggested new test to himself & his fellow parliamentarians.