A hybrid duck at Ashbridges Bay Park in Toronto, Ontario. (All photos by Edward O’Connor)

An Odd Duck

But a strangely beautiful hybrid

For the second year in a row, a rare hybrid duck has decided to spend the winter at Ashbridges Bay on Toronto’s waterfront. Last year, this male duck, or drake, was still a juvenile and had a juvenile’s dull-colored plumage. This year, it has acquired its adult breeding plumage, and, as the photo above shows, it’s a remarkable looking bird, with a dramatic black crest and rust-colored flanks.

Its parentage brought together two very different types of duck. The Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) is a broad-shouldered bruiser of a diving duck patterned in black and white. It has a blunt bill shaped like a rubber doorstop.

A male Common Goldeneye in breeding plumage. Its heavy, blunt bill aids in capturing and crushing underwater molluscs such as the Zebra Mussel, a favourite food.

The Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus), on the other hand, is a more petite duck with a knitting-needle of a bill and a flamboyant crest, which it can raise or lower according to mood.

A Hooded Merganser with raised crest. Its long, narrow, and finely toothed bill helps it to capture small fish.

Our hybrid duck, which perhaps we should call the Hooded Goldeneye, will spend its life working through its own peculiar identity crisis. As things stand now, sometimes it associates with the Common Goldeneyes, and at other times, it hangs with the Hooded Mergansers. Even though it’s probably sterile, that doesn’t mean this duck won’t try to mate. On what side of the species divide will it choose to partner? Stay tuned for further developments.

The hybrid duck in company with a male and female Common Goldeneye. This hybrid also likes to associate with the other branch of its family tree, the Hooded Mergansers. It could choose to mate with either of these species.