The Remarkable Blue Winged Hybrid
By: duckDNA
Thank you duckDNA for graciously allowing Nevada Waterfowl Association to share this unique encounter with our members.
REMARKABLE BLUE-WINGED HYBRID!
Congratulations to Nick Barr on harvesting this exceptional hybrid in November 2024 in Yolo County, California! If you remember our post in December, this was a bird we were most excited to learn about, and it was worth the wait!! Analyses by the duckDNA team at the Lavretsky Lab found genetic evidence of all three species of “blue-winged ducks,” making it a Northern Shoveler x Blue-winged Teal x Cinnamon Teal!
According to Dr. Lavretsky, “This is the first hybrid I’ve seen involving 3 wild species of ducks! This tells us that 1) Cinnamon Teal x Blue-winged Teal hybrids are viable, and 2) the injection of a third species at least produces survivable offspring. However, we don’t know if it would have been reproductively viable.”
This bird was produced when a Cinnamon Teal x Blue-winged Teal hybrid bred with a Northern Shoveler. And in this case, mitochondrial DNA tells us the shoveler was the hen.
All three species are closely related, each belonging to the genus “Spatula” and possessing the characteristic wing plumage found in these species—a blue shoulder patch and iridescent green speculum. In fact, Blue-winged and Cinnamon Teal appear so similar that it is virtually impossible to distinguish females by species, and only in their breeding plumage can males be identified to species.
What is more…this bird was banded! The band return certificate shows it was banded as an adult in August 2018, near Fallon, Nevada, through a botulism rehab program, making it at least 7 years old when harvested. Not surprisingly, the identification at banding was incorrect, as it was recorded as a Cinnamon Teal. We’ll forgive the bander in this case, who turned out to be our good friend and colleague Chris Nicolai!
That’s a lot to take in, but we thank Nick for giving us the opportunity to run the analysis and share what we learned! And we thank him especially for reporting the band!
About Dr. Chris Nicolai
Dr. Chris Nicolai is a distinguished waterfowl biologist with over 30 years of research experience. He earned his Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 2010. Before joining Delta Waterfowl as a waterfowl scientist in November 2019, Nicolai served as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 8 migratory bird biologist, covering California and Nevada. His involvement with the Nevada Waterfowl Association includes serving as the organization’s waterfowl biologist.
duckDNA
duckDNA is a partnership between Ducks Unlimited, University of Texas at El Paso, and hunters to study waterfowl genetics.
