Male muscovy duck

Another lunch time walk in the Auckland Domain; although I left my sandwiches in the office and just walked this time. I did think about the sculpture from last week, but was more pleased with a photo of the tumbling small waterfall beside Lovers Walk, one of the paths through bush down to the bottom of Grafton gulley. (see extra)

Also, as I was walking back I saw some activity beside the duckpond. I was rather a long distance away when a muscovy duck was chased into the duck pond by a visitor to the Auckland Domain. It was not apparent why she and her younger male relative were chasing every bird on the board walk into the duckpond. 

It was clearly not a greylag goose, although of a similar size, and even more definitely not a black swan. The absence of the identifying bright red caruncles at the base of the bill, delayed my recognition until I got home and looked more closely. That also indicates that it is a young muscovy duck, as is its companion (not shown).

Muscovy ducks are described as: large, goose-like ducks with highly variable plumage. Although most New Zealand birds are either plain white or pied, black males are not uncommon. The wild population is relatively tame, as they have either recently escaped captivity, or been deliberately released. Because of this, they often depend on humans for hand outs of food, although (like geese) they also graze on grass by the ponds.

Muscovy ducks can hybridise with mallards, and the hybrids are highly variable in plumage having features of both parent species. They are not considered established in the wild in New Zealand, and are sparsely distributed throughout the mainland on lakes, ponds, slow-flowing streams, and adjacent pasture close to human habitation. This one and its fellow, were by (and then in) the duckpond, and well away from the tumbling waterfall of the extra.