Mexican
Duck, Anas diazi
The Mexican Duck is still treated by North American authorities as a subspecies of the Mallard, but it may soon be recognized as a separate species on the basis of recent DNA studies suggesting that it is more closely related to the American Black Duck than to the familiar Mallard with its green-headed males. Like the Mottled Duck of Florida and the Gulf Coast, the Mexican Duck males, as in the picture above, have plumage similar to the female, but a yellow (rather than the female orange and black) bill; both sexes are shown in the picture below. Mexican Ducks outnumber standard Mallards in Mexico, and are common in the desert southwest of the U.S.
