American Black Duck  

"The first 4 pictures are of a mounted male Mottled killed on 11/11/95, next to what I'm convinced is a male Black killed on 1/7/01. Notice how much darker the Black is, and how even the Black's head is more streaked and darker. We've been hunting the same marsh since 1964, and we've killed TONS of Mottleds. But when my brother, father and I saw it, at the same time we all said "Black Duck". It just looked so different, and we've read all about Blacks, and we are convinced this is one. Amazingly, on 1/13/01 I killed what I believe to be a second, female Black. The last photo is a series of photos I took of both of these birds (male and female) shortly after they were killed. The top two show the male, the bottom two show the female (which I gave to my taxidermist). Unfortunately, I don't have digital picture of these, but I can copy what I do have and send them to you if you'd like. Again, the female was noticeably darker than nearly every Mottled I've seen. Moreover, the female's bill was a olive green color with dark patches, whereas all the female Mottleds I've seen are identical to female Mallards, i.e., orange with dark patches." Patrick Moresi