Male Muscovy Duck

Male Muscovy Duck
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

I saw this duck today at a park in Unionville. Its mate was all white but with the same redness around the beak and eyes. There was a stupid younger couple who were trying to take pictures with their cell phone at the same time I was and they literally chased the birds into the stream. (What do you say to such people???)

Anyway, these ducks seemed fairly docile and came back onland after the idiot couple left and I got some shots at a distance that they seemed to be comfortable with. I wanted to be able to identify them when I got home to my Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Birds!

However, much to my consternation, there was NOTHING remotely like these ducks in my field guide. But after a few minutes of searching on the Internet, I learned that this is a Muscovy duck that is considered "domestic". They are often bred for their white colour, which does not occur often in the wild. See the Cayuga Bird Club newsletter at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/cayugabirdclub/pdf/March2006.pdf.

What in the world did we do before there was Google????