A bit about Mottled Ducks

13 March 2010, 09:02

Lets talk a bit about Mottled Ducks. They are a separate species from Mallard and Black Duck.

There are 2 sub-species of Mottled Duck found in North America.

Florida Mottled Duck
Latin Name: Anas fulvigula fulvigula

Then we have the...

Gulf Mottled Duck
Latin Name: Anas fulvigula maculosa

Florida Mottled Duck is sedentary and does not migrate at all. I happened to pick mine up from the taxidermist today and thought about posting the pic.

Drake Florida Mottled Duck

The Gulf Mottled Duck is "relatively" easy to collect because it is quite common in many Gulf States as well as the Gulf side of Mexico. I will try to dig the picture out for the Gulf Mottled duck. Coloration is a bit different between both sub-species.

If you are in Southern Florida and have the opportunity to hunt waterfowl, please try your best to get one of these beauties.

13 March 2010, 17:59

Norton

Nice......can you post a drake black duck for comparison?(I've killed plenty of 'em just interested in a photo compare and contrast)

13 March 2010, 19:48

Gatogordo

Up here in NE Texas I haven't seen a mottled duck in years. However, when I used to hunt pretty often down on or near the Louisiana coast we saw them frequently. "Saw" was the operative word. They were usually in pairs and very rarely would decoy. I killed a few by going to their preferred landing areas on slow days but most of the time, they were killed flying by a blind. Most cajuns call them black ducks, which, of course, they are not. Taste about like bald eagle.......

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14 March 2010, 09:13

collector

@Gatogordo
I hunted Laguna Madre on the Texas coast and we saw very few Mottled ducks there. However I was able to get couple nice ones in Tamaulipas, Mexico. I will try to dig out the pics. The speculum was definitely a lot different from the Florida Mottled.

@Norton
First pic was done by a biologist who spent a lot of time with Mottled ducks.

Here are some Black Ducks, freshly off the marsh. Top bird I shot late in January on Atlantic Coast of Virginia. Second bird was a december bird in Maryland. Both are drakes.

14 March 2010, 16:47

Norton

Thanks collector.....as I said, we have black ducks to no end up here(which is actually a royal PIA with the one bird limit). From the original photo of the mottled it appeared that the bill is the only feature significantly different.....good thing we don't have 'em up here b/c it'd be tough to judge on the wing!

Edit: and the lighter head on the mot.