northeast-flora-and-fauna

The family connections of Mallards are pretty complicated. This article mentions 2 aspects: Mallards may interbreed with other ducks like the American Black Duck , but the hybrids but they look more like Mallards, and these hybrids usually end up breeding with Mallards rather than American Black Ducks. (This might imply a breeding preference or just reflect that there are more Mallards out there for the hybrids to breed with.) The Mallards we have around here are mostly "hybrids" themselves between North American Mallards and Eurasian Mallards. (I used quotes because both North American and Eurasian Mallards are considered to be the same species.) And this article seems to suggest that true North American Mallards (generally found in the western US) are genetically closer to some North American ducks like the American Black Duck, the Mexican Duck , and the Mottled Duck than they are to Eurasian Mallards. (To me this makes it sound like either North American and Eurasian M...

Here's a sulphur who was living in my neighborhood. It's either a Clouded Sulphur or an Orange Sulphur . As I've mentioned before, these are very similar butterflies can be difficult to distinguish . While the top view of the Orange Sulphur's wings usually look orangish-yellow, that effect isn't as prominent on views of the bottom of the wings. I think this one is pale enough to be a Clouded Sulphur, but the identification hasn't been endorsed (or refuted) on iNaturalist ; I suspect the coloring is in that inconclusive area. I've also warned you in the past about relying too heavily on color. All too often lighting can play tricks on what a camera produces. Unfortunately the markings of these two butterflies is close enough that color/shading really is the best way (short of a DNA test) to distinguish them. Technically these two butterflies will hybridize occasionally, it doesn't sound like it happens often. And given how similar these species are, the ...