Hi guys!
Saw these two handsome fellows out on my run the other night. Admittedly, I don’t know very much about ducks but I’ve never seen ones like these before. Poking around on the inter webs lead to my best guesses being a khaki Campbell and a Cayuga? I’d really appreciate any help any duck lovers could offer.
The black one is smaller than the other, which makes me think that it might be a non-show-quality black runner, rather than a cayuga. (I had blue "runners" that were anything other than upright.)
Cayugas are a medium-weight breed, while khaki campbells are light weight breed. The color on the lighter one does look like a khaki campbell drake, but drakes can look rather similar over different breeds, and I'm not terribly familiar with drake coloration.
Was the black one iridescent? If so, I'd say Cayuga.
My vote for the other one is for a variation of Khaki Campbell. Most ducks don't meet The Duck Standard Blah dee Blah for show ducks (yes, duck shows are a thing).
Ducks are wonderful! I had no idea how much joy they would bring to my life as well as to random people who walk down the street and stop to talk about them. It's good. Really good. (Except for the person who tried to feed them Cheetos...)
Thanks, guys!
The black one definitely had an iridescent green sheen about him. It’s pretty cool just how many kinds and varieties of ducks there are out there. I’d never really thought about it before or about how they’d cross-breed just like dogs or cats. There’s something undeniably cute and fascinating about them for sure. I appreciate everyone’s help and input!
Laurie Keller wrote:Saw them again today! Bosom buddies!
With these photos, I might actually second the runner duck suggestion. Cayugas are horizontal ducks, not upright duckies.
Edit; and now that I look at it, it's more obviously not cayuga. They're melanistic, so their beaks are also black. That's just a black duck of an upright breed Also, probably both male. At least in Pekins, that curly feather above the tail means it's a male.
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