Mallard x Red-crested Pochard
Anas platyrynchos x Netta rufina

Mallards can be quite sexually aggressive and wil often mate with other species of duck. In this male, the parents are a Mallard and a Red-crested Pochard. Overall, the shape is quite like a Mallard, but the colouring is somewhere between, having the light brown back, grey sides and the pink tinge to the bill. The colours have mixed on the head plumage and the crown of the bird is higher and more rounded than in the Mallard. The orange crest of the Red-crested Pochard can be seen in this bird. The fourth picture is a female of this hybrid and shows the pale cheeks of the Red-crested Pochard, but the body colouration of the Mallard.
 

  

  

1-3: Thun, 15/02/2009.
4: St James' Park, London, 18/08/2006.