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Three muscovy's turned up this week at the Michaels' Ave pond in Auckland. Their wings look too small to me. Are they regrowing after a moult, pinioned or is this normal ? Hard to believe they flew in.

Flew in via Uber

September-hatched Muscovy ducklings, all males, with flight feathers not fully grown until 4 weeks from here.
Wing coverts are black until 12 to 15 months old, then after two months of regrowing the flight feathers during moult, wing coverts will be white.

Muscovy ducks are beautiful birds when in natural /wild coloured, with glossy black bodies and white wing coverts.

GrahameNZ wrote:Flew in via Uber

As long as it's not ubereats.

Clinton9 wrote:September-hatched Muscovy ducklings, all males, with flight feathers not fully grown until 4 weeks from here.
Wing coverts are black until 12 to 15 months old, then after two months of regrowing the flight feathers during moult, wing coverts will be white.

Muscovy ducks are beautiful birds when in natural /wild coloured, with glossy black bodies and white wing coverts.

I've been keeping an eye on the pond since April and never saw Muscovy ducks there before, so suspect they hatched elsewhere. Can they fly at this age ? If not I think they must have been brought to the pond. The only Muscovy duck report in the vicinity this year is a single bird at Maungarei wetland, about 2 km away in September.