This was part of a larger group of recent arrivals I saw yesterday hanging out in Gleason Park in Indian Harbour Beach, FL (Central FL, barrier island). Looks like a couple with teal colored accent feathers, one with navy-blue. Some bills were solid, others had a dark area on the top. Please help.
Dawn
It all depends on how you interpret varieties. I'd say you have a flock of Mottled Ducks and the variation you see is due to differences in age and gender. The flash on the wing (speculum) is iridescent and the tint varies with angle (of the incident light or bird). The beak color varies by sex; males yellow females more orangy; duller in young birds. There is at least one duck in your flock that might have a bit of Mallard in it but it could also just be at the extreme of natural variation. One field mark for Mottled Ducks is the black spot at the gape and all your birds have this.
I'd agree that the right-most bird on the first shot and top/left bird in the second shot (I assume that's the same bird) looks very suspicious. The bill looks fairly orangey, more like you'd expect in a female Mallard. I think bird actually has quite a bit of Mallard in it.
One, Two, or Three varieties?
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