BirdingNZ.net

As there is apparently some doubt about the status of grey duck in NZ I'm posting pics of a pair on the river at Turangi that look like classic examples of the species - they also had four young

Orange legs are mallard genes. Grey ducks have Greenish brown legs and also Green speculum but this one seems to lack the white borders of mallard. But unfortunately the Orange legs are the biggy here.

It's interesting though. Trolling the internet I literally can't find one photo of a Grey Duck or even Pacific Black Duck with grey/brown or green/ brown legs. Everything has Orange tinged legs and a lot of photos showing supposedly pure featured ducks show them in the water with no feet showing. Does anybody actually have a photo of a Grey Duck with the grey/brown feet and legs?

We have a small population of great looking grey ducks at the Ngunguru Water Treatment Plant. I see at least one (usually 2) pretty pure looking grey ducks nearly every time on my weekly visits and I only count them when they are out of the water when I can confirm the legs are dark. There would be about 20+ good looking candidates for Grey Duck here but I'm still amazed how many have orange or orangish leg when they get out of the water. They also tend to keep in a group together a bit away from the 50 to 100 odd mallards that also use the pond (along with the 62 Brown Teal I saw there last week). I fear it's only a matter of time before all the greys become crossed with mallard tho. I only have one image with the dark legs. Cheers Scott

Given the number of grey duck that were in NZ before mallard were introduced, compared to the number of mallard introduced and the mallards tendency to mate with just abouut anything!!....then I suspect there are actually no mallard in NZ - only mallard/grey crosses - and maybe still some greys?
That photo looks pretty convincing Scott - but I imagine wthout some sort of genetic test you couldn't be certain.

cheers Jim

Adam C wrote:It's interesting though. Trolling the internet I literally can't find one photo of a Grey Duck or even Pacific Black Duck with grey/brown or green/ brown legs. Everything has Orange tinged legs and a lot of photos showing supposedly pure featured ducks show them in the water with no feet showing. Does anybody actually have a photo of a Grey Duck with the grey/brown feet and legs?

I think this is pretty much a full score for grey duck.

The leg closest to camera looks ok but that far leg looks orange tinted to me. The speculum looks blue green. I just want to see one image showing all feet grey/brown. I think we should keep the challenge going!

When people say orange-tinted legs they mean something like this. The above photo looks perfectly good leg wise, I don’t think they get much greyer than that.

Hi Oscar. Ok I'm just trying to clarify some things. I'm sure most on here know more than I do but the Heather-robertson Birds NZ field guide states greenish-brown legs and feet and another 'are you really seeing grey duck

https://ebird.org/newzealand/news/grey_ducks

...says Grey brown.

Also it's listed as 'Very Rare Native' so I guess I'm just trying to establish if these dull Orange brown legged ducks are true Grey Ducks or if indeed true Grey ducks have/had grey- brown legs and feet and the above are just the least hybridized that are left which would mean true grey ducks have actually gone.

Wondering if anyone else can shed some more light on this. Sorry all I just find it really interesting and would love to know the facts on it. If there was a photo of a Grey Duck with literally 'Grey-brown' feet that would settle it but so far the above is the closest we have yet.

Just re-looking at Jim's pic the legs do look pretty good. Still love to see the feet. And I guess the speculum looks different depending on how the light hits it.

Still think we should keep the challenge open for a full pic of Grey-brown feet. Jim's is top of the board so far!