Killed a lot of birds on my flooded timber outside of Emory but I have never killed anything out of the norm. Obviously a mallard and maybe just a late molt or something just thought I would share. We have already killed around 50 greenheads on my place this year but this was a first.

Mallard x Widgeon hybrid. Nice looking rare bird.

Agree and those are neat curl feathers

Very nice! I'd say Mallard/widgeon, too.

Got any more pictures? A fully extended picture of the wing always helps with id questions.

Really cool!

That is one for the wall my friend. I hope you took care of that one.

Immature mallard drake. Don't see anything wigeon in it. What color was the speculum? Big white patch on the wing?

You may be right. http://hybridduck.blogspot.com/p/gallery.html
A picture of the wing would help.

100% Agreed.

Granted I am not a die hard duck hunter but I have killed my share of birds over the years on my place. I was always under the impression that a mallards curls was a indication of maturity. I have killed numerous 1-4 curl mallards. This particular bird had 3 full curls. They are all hard to see in the pic bc of the angle so that's why I didn't believe it was an immature bird. I may be completely wrong but that's what I have always been told. So I guess what I am saying is how is this bird immature with 3 curls and a drake with 1 curl looks just as it should? This is the only other pic I took.

Sorry not sure, but those multicolored curl feathers are SWEET! Definitely keep!

It's head is perfectly mallard shaped it seems to me; funky genetics mature mallard? Half black mallard, half standard if that's possible??

It could either be a young mallard drake, or a really old mallard hen. The bill is telling me its more likely a young drake.

That is what I was thinking too.

Number of curls don't necessarily indicate age. They all have potential to have 4 individual curl feathers. Where people get confused is if one is lost or isn't laying correctly, it appears to be a "3 or 4" curl mallard.

Looks like a good hunt, and neat bird though. Congrats.

It's 2016/2017. That bird can identify as whatever species and whatever sex/gender it wants. There's an awful lot of white cisgender male privilege in this thread.