Below we recognize hunters and show detailed pictures of hybrids from the 2013 season and from birds collected before 2013.
Here are some of the hybrids received as whole birds from the 2013 appeal to hunters. These additions to the research collections of the UW Burke Museum, together with their extended wings and tissue samples, will always be available for study by scientists, students, and artists.
MALLARD X WIGEON HYBRIDS (Presumably American Wigeon).
Here are some of the hybrids received as whole birds from the 2013 appeal to hunters. These additions to the research collections of the UW Burke Museum, together with their extended wings and tissue samples, will always be available for study by scientists, students, and artists.
MALLARD X WIGEON HYBRIDS (Presumably American Wigeon).
Each of these hybrids is an exceptionally valuable addition to this study because we predict both will have Mallard sires. Mallards are frequent rapists, but widgeon less so, and drake mallards have a strong size advantage over female wigeon.
Chuck Biller sent us this male in full color from of New Mexico. It is a spectacular bird, likely to be an F1 hybrid.
All images are males. Top to bottom in each picture is: Mallard, Biller hybrid, American Wigeon.
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| Biller hybrid wing |
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| Biller hybrid head |
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| Biller hybrid ventral |
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| Biller hybrid dorsal |
Tyler Walker in Alaska wins the prize for recognizing another Mallard x wigeon hybrid.
The season opens early in Alaska and the bird he gave us was in full juvenile plumage.
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| Walker hybrid in full juvenile plumage |
This bird shows the same wing characters as Chuck Biller's full plumage bird from New Mexico, so we suspect it will also prove to be an F1 hybrid.
All images are males. Top to bottom is: Mallard, Walker hybrid, American Wigeon.
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| Walker hybrid |
MALLARD x GADWALL HYBRIDS
Mallards and Gadwalls are both raping species, but the size asymmetry suggests Mallard sires. We have two specimens of this hybrid combination; remarkably, both are females.
UWBM 68928 was salvaged in Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, California in 1995 and already in the collection. It is in female in full juvenile plumage and was not recognized as a hybrid until its wing was examined carefully.
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| UWBM 68928 |
All images are wings from juvenile females. Top to bottom is Mallard, UWBM 68928, Gadwall.
Aaron Yettler, a research biologist with the Illinois Biological Survey sent us this female hybrid from their freezer. It was shot in Illinois in the Fall of 2011 by Dr. Josh Stafford.
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| Aaron Yettler Mallard x Gadwall female |
All images are wings from young females. Top to bottom is Mallard, Yettler hybrid, Gadwall.
GADWALL x GREEN-WINGED TEAL HYBRIDS
Gadwalls and greenwings are both raping species, but the size asymmetry suggests Gadwall sires.
Note the heavier markings on the breast of the two hybrids and the reddish head with a subdued green patch coming through from the Green-wing parent. The Hebert hybrid also shows teal-like cinnamon in the lateral under tail coverts, but this does not show in the Dini hybrid.
The wings are too remarkable to describe without becoming a bore, but do note some of the green speculum coming through from the teal, and that the big white wing patch found in Gadwalls is mostly suppressed in these hybrids. Such valuable specimens for eventual detailed plumage descriptions!
Randal Hebert, a Cajun from Louisiana, donated a gorgeous specimen of this cross. It is intermediate in enough characters that we suspect it will prove to be an F1 hybrid.
All images are males. Top to bottom in each picture is: Gadwall, Hebert hybrid, Green-winged Teal.
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| Hebert hybrid |
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| Hebert hybrid |
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| Hebert hybrid |
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| Hebert hybrid |
Terrence Dini donated the second example from Wyoming. It’s a close match to the Hebert specimen, so we suspect it, too, will prove to be an F1.
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| Dini hybrid |
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| Dini hybrid |
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| Dini hybrid |
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| Dini hybrid |
MALLARD X REDHEAD HYBRID
Brad Watts of Poulsbo, Washington donated this remarkable hybrid. Presumably it was sired by a wild mallard that mated with a pinioned female Redhead housed in an open pen. It was two years old when it died. We cannot include this bird in the study of the origin of wild hybrids, but it is so remarkable it deserved posting. This is the wing shown on the home page.
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| Watts captive hybrid |
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| Watts captive hybrid |
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| Watts captive hybrid |
AMERICAN X EURASIAN WIGEON HYBRIDS
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| American x Eurasian Wigeon Photo by Steven Mlodinow |
This hybrid combination may result from a shortage of mates for Eurasian Wigeon that winter in North America. Although very rare compared to American Wigeon, many Eurasian Wigeon winter on the west coast of North America. Because they are rare, we might expect female Eurasian Wigeon occasionally to mate with male American Wigeon.
Who should sire west coast wigeon hybrids? Because males substantially outnumber females in temperate waterfowl, female American Wigeon wintering on the west coast should have no trouble finding conspecific mates. But male-biased sex ratios mean two things for Eurasian Wigeon wintering on the west coast. First, male Eurasian Wigeon will likely go unmated if they cannot find or attract female Eurasian Wigeon as mates. Second, female Eurasian Wigeon wintering on the west coast that fail to find Eurasian mates will likely accept unpaired male American Wigeon as mates, rather than go unmated. This logic suggests that F1 hybrid wigeon from the west coast will have American Wigeon sires. Further, hybrid females that return to the west coast to winter should also mate predominately with male American Wigeon, thus preserving in backcrosses the siring asymmetry predicted for F1 hybrids.
Good numbers of hybrids between American and Eurasian Wigeon will be needed to test these predictions. Because nuclear genes should allow us to identify F1 and backcross hybrids, study skins of hybrid wigeon will be especially valuable for documenting and illustrating plumage differences between various classes of hybrids.
We currently have three presumed American x Eurasian Wigeon hybrids, two were previously in the Burke collection, and a third was donated in 2013.
The following images are males. Top to bottom in each picture is: American Wigeon, hybrid, Eurasian Wigeon.
Burke hybrid 54823 from UW Campus
Burke hybrid(?) 59450 from Russia (If this is a hybrid it is highly backcrossed to Eurasian Wigeon):
Watts hybrid from Washington:
American and Eurasian Wigeon wings are difficult to distinguish except by differences in the axilliaries (under wing feathers near the body). Axillaries are white in American Wigeon and grey in Eurasian Wigeon. In the preceding pictures, note that outer vein of the inner secondary (next to the speculum) is grey in American Wigeon and white in Eurasian Wigeon, opposite differences in their axillaries. Otherwise the wings are similar. Heads are highly variable in hybrids, suggesting backcrossing is common.
THANKS FOR TISSUES AND PHOTOS
As much as we would like to receive whole birds for detailed study, tissues from hybrids that can readily be identified as probable F1s can be used to test some of our predictions.
Special thanks to the following hunters and biologists who have arranged to send tissues and photographs from hybrids that were mounted or were banded and released.
Contributor
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Parentage
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State
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2013-14 season
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Brandon Reishus
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Mallard x
Northern Pintail
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OR
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Aaron Yetter
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Lesser
Scaup x Ringneck
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IL
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Brad Watts
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American
x Eurasian Green-winged Teal
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WA
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Derek Demaree
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Gadwall x
??
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MO
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Sean Carr
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Hen
Mallard backcross to ??
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WA
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Sean Carr
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Drake
Mallard backcross to ??
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WA
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Josh Running
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Possible
scaup hybrid
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WI
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Brent Hemstreet
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Blue-billed
mallard: hybrid?
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ON
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