2018 split
Mexican Duck split from Mallard
In 2018 eBird made Mexican Duck a species of its own, split from Mallard, and the AOS followed in 2020. Mexican Duck lives in the Southwest and Mexico.
Updated
What changed
Across most of North America, Europe and Asia, including the Southwest, where it meets Mexican Duck.
Nests from southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico and west Texas south into the highlands of central Mexico. A few wander north to Colorado and Utah.
Who decided, and when
- eBird and the Clements Checklist: its 2018 taxonomy update
- American Ornithological Society (AOS): the 61st Supplement to its Check-list, two years after it had turned the split down
- AviList, the shared world checklist: agrees, with the same names
Which one did you see?
Go by place first. Away from the Southwest and Mexico, a Mallard-type duck is almost always a Mallard.
Both male and female Mexican Ducks look much like a dark female Mallard. The best clue is the tail: brown on a Mexican Duck, mostly white on a Mallard. The white edges of the colored wing patch are thinner, too.
The two often interbreed where they meet. A bird with white in the tail, curled tail feathers or green on the head has some Mallard in it.
What it does to your list
If you have seen both a Mallard and a Mexican Duck, your total goes up by one.
If you have only seen Mallards, nothing changes.
Check your own list. Drop your eBird download or type your birds: the free checker shows which of them this and other recent changes touched.
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