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After further review, I believe birdbrain22 is correct – it's a Green wing X Blue wing. I didn't realize the slender white crescent would cause so much white on a cross with a Green wing but apparently it does. Numerous pictures on the Internet purporting to be such a hybrid show that amount of white brushed with a little bit of auburn just like the duck in the original post.

Image result for green winged teal x blue wing teal hybrid

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7 hours ago, von Humboldt said:

After further review, I believe birdbrain22 is correct

I think birdbrain22 is most correct in the "i think" part
So far I think it makes the most sense and I'm guessing would be most likely...  but I sure can't look at the bird and make any confident claims.

I tried looking up hybrids and just did not find a ton to compare with. None of them were quite the same as the OP's bird. It has stronger green-winged traits in some areas and, weaker ones in others.

Just for fun... could anyone describe any individual parts of the original poster's bird and assign them to potential ducks? Why would the white patch on a blue-winged cause THAT much white on a hybrid? Someone suggested perhaps pintail... in that case I'd want to lean white-cheeked... but I'm not sure that's likely. That is a LOT of white on it. 

So, since I know nothing much about hybrids and can't really discern a whole lot myself from this bird... I'm curious, just for fun, what parts of this bird make you think of what.
Like I said, the amount of white on the face seems excessive and (jokingly) makes me want to say white-cheeked pintail.

I could go on... but with all that said... this is especially tricky because no two birds are going to be alike. When you cross animals(dogs for instance) the offspring don't often look the same... especially if the background of either animal wasn't pure to begin with.
Trying to explain the white, I considered the added possibility of a domestic gene in there but the overall shape and size and the very teal like bill have me thinking that's not very likely.

Okay, that's enough rambling. I'm not sure we can do more than speculate... I think we're all in agreement that it's a green-winged teal hybrid of some sort. 

and I'd go so far as to say that, so far, the blue-winged x green-winged makes the most sense... I just can't say how certain I am.

What would be really interesting is to see what its siblings look like now.  
And, are people allowed to have captive teal? Trying to figure out how someone captive bred the two... and why.

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Concerning the “white” patch on the face, I believe that is generally considered an ancestral trait that pops up in many dabbling duck hybrids.  It’s often compared to the facial pattern of the Baikal Teal, which is in its own genus now and isn’t super closely related to other dabblers.  Just a thought.  

 

I agree with Blue-winged X Green-winged. 

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  • 7 months later...

Sorry, but this is neither  Greenwing  x Bluewing  nor Greenwing x Pintail.

This is a much rarer hybrid , Greewing x Garganey. Garganey is an eurasian species recorded as a vagrant to North America. Typical features of Garganey are seen in the link here:

https://ebird.org/species/gargan

Garganey hybrids are rather rare. You find a publication on a Garganey x Eurasian (Common) Teal here:

https://nhm.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10141/622244/Lehmhus_Dies_Grouw+DB37(3)164-170_2015.pdf;jsessionid=CC38B38D824BC326C808A97AA3551E06?sequence=1

As Common teal and Greenwinged tealare extremely similar, it is logical that hybrids of either species with garganey should resemble each other very much.

Traits indicating Garganey parentage are :

1. the undertail coverts : no black in these (typical for several garganey hybrids) . 

Greenwing x Bluewing and Greenwing x Pintail have partly or mainly black undertail coverts

 

Greenwing x bluewing

brazostealhirsch.jpg

 

480

 

greenwing x pintail

HYBRID TEAL DRAKE

2. head pattern and coloration: yes it is close to greenwing x bluewing (much less so to greenwing x pintail which has a dark stripe going down over the cheek). but the dark area which would form the  patch around the eye and goes to the rear of the cheek  has a brown ground coloration, not a black one as in greenwing x bluewing . and the greenish iridescence is only to the rear of the head, not over the whole darka rea as in greenwing x bluewing.

3. the scapulars: The longer scapulars of Gargane have a unique pattern, with a white stripe running down the length of the feather. the hybrids feathers are not so delicately painted , but there is also a white stripe running through the negth of the fairly pointed longer scapulars.

 

 there is some more, but just ompare with the Spanish bird in the link I gave

 and also see the differences to greenwing x bluewing and  greewing x pintail

best Regards, Jörn

 

 

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