[Birdtalk] RE: Another weird duck report

[cldavis at xmission.com]

This reminds me of a story I was just reading on the Internet. I'm sure 
most of the birders know that in Europe the introduced Ruddy Duck and 
the native White-headed Duck have been cross-breeding and causing quite 
the stir.  This has led to an attempt to exterminate the Ruddy.  Here's 
a link to a photo of the white-headed duck:
http://www.lros.org.uk/Archive%20pages/whduck.htm

And here's an article about the hybridization and other articles about 
the attempts to control it:
http://www.wwt.org.uk/threatsp/hybrid/index.htm

I don't know about Ruddy Ducks but the cliff swallows at Bear River 
seem to have years where there is a lot of albinism so I imagine it 
could happen with the Ruddys.