If you draw a line from north to south from the top of North America to the bottom, most of the region on the east side of that line is more or less occupied by American Black Ducks, either as a breeding species, especially in the northern half, or as a wintering bird, with a wide overlap zone where it both breeds and winters. But I mostly think of it as a species that nests in the boreal black spruce forests of northern Ontario, Quebec  and Newfoundland and Labrador. To the west of that imaginary line would be most of the historical native range of the extremely closely related Mallard (A. platyrhynchos), a species that tended to nest in marshes and sloughs in the prairie regions while the American Black Duck nested in forest ponds. The Mallard is also found across the northern hemisphere, while the American Black Duck is strictly North American.   But in modern times Mallards have moved east in North America, helped by human activity, even deliberate translocation, and now occupy much of the same region as the American Black Duck. 

The two species often hybridize, but not randomly. I live in the middle of the “hybrid zone” and both species are very common here. While I do see hybrids, usually the Mallards seem to associate mostly with Mallards and the American Black Ducks with their own kind as well.  Female Mallards look superficially like American Black Ducks, being brown and mottled, but they are a lot lighter in tone, have orange beaks with a bit of brown mottling, whitish tail feathers and blue speculums (the iridescent patch on the wing, which is more purple in the American Black Duck; in both cases the colour derives from refraction – the reflection of part of the visual spectrum, and not pigmentation) and the feet are more orange, usually being more brightly red or reddish in the American Black Duck. Most of the time we just refer to this species as the “black duck”, with the “American” added to the official name to avoid confusion with a very different species of duck in Africa, the African Black Duck.

I showed a trio of birds on the east coast, where many winter. There are two males and a female, the latter having an olive-green beak, as opposed to the bright yellow of the male, but otherwise the two sexes are quite similar. The species nests on the ground, often in beaver ponds, even on the roofs of beaver lodges. This is a favourite painting of mine (I love painting waterfowl) and this is the first time I have put it on the market, hoping to find it a good home with fellow duck fans.