Giant caramel duck

QThis photo was taken last month at a wetland in South Wales. The duck was swimming with a group of Mallards but doesn’t fit with any of the pictures in our books of immature or eclipse plumage for that species. The closest match we could find for it was a female Garganey but it would seem unusual to see one in January as they don’t normally visit our shores until later in the year. Another possible match could be a Rouen Clair duck because of the face but we are not sure at all because of the bill colour. It is still there now but has grown to almost twice the size of a female Mallard. We are not very good on waterfowl, so any assistance is greatly appreciated. Whatever the duck is, it is a striking bird with beautiful caramel- coloured plumage. Perhaps it’s something really obvious, but we still would like to know. Thank you for your help in solving our mystery.

J Reynolds

AWe are not great experts on domestic duck breeds (wild birds being more our thing!), but your analysis of this very large, pale duck as a Rouen Clair breed is pretty close to what we came up with. The Rouen ducks in general tend to be very large birds (originally derived from Mallards, of course) and some do have dark bills like your bird, though the Rouen Clair can often have an orange bill, as well as that distinctive face pattern. It is a breed developed about 100 years ago in France. It is certainly not a Garganey, despite its stripy face, a duck which is almost as small as a Teal. Garaganeys are not unheard of in winter, but, as you imply they tend to arrive as summer visitors from March onwards and are never huge!