April 22, 2018 - Muscovy Ducks

Lake Ella is a small lake within the city of Tallahassee, Florida. It has a population of Muscovy Ducks. These ducks are considered to be feral, which means they are living on their own but are not truly wild. Their appearance is quite varied and always interesting. They have very thick legs, a pink bill with varying amounts of white and black, and bare red skin, called a wattle, around the face.

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Truly wild populations of Muscovy Ducks are found in Mexico, Central and South America. They have mostly dark, iridescent body feathers, a white patch of feathers on the wing, and the red wattle. This duck at Lake Ella looks a lot like the wild ones.

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At Lake Ella there are also many feral Mallards. Cross breeding often takes place between the Mallards and the Muscovy Ducks. This duck looks like the result of one of those pairings. Its head looks like a Mallard, but the body looks like a Muscovy Duck.

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Females are usually smaller and have less of a wattle. This one could be a female.

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This flapping Muscovy Duck shows how large the white wing patch actually is.

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Some of the ducks were bathing and producing a huge amount of water spray with their wings.

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