Chicken/duck Hybrid?

[Tewinkle]

I’m a curious bystander who doesn’t know much about chickens or ducks but this piqued my curiosity. I was walking around a lake a couple months ago and saw a lone white female chicken with red comb among lots of different kinds of ducks including plain white ones. Not aware of any chicken farms nearby so I figured it was lost. Then this month, I saw this creature that had characteristics of both the hen and white ducks. But it doesn’t swim with the other ducks. How rare is this? I thought hens and ducks were physically incompatible. I haven’t seen the hen in awhile. Is this thing dangerous at all to the other ducks? Should I report it to animal control?

 

[danceswithronin]

It's not a chicken, it's a Muscovy duck. The red warts on the face are normal, just part of the breed.

 

[The_BirdNerd]

It appears to be a Muscovy duck, and it shouldn’t be dangerous whatsoever, unless you get too close to it’s eggs! And even if it doesn’t swim when you watch it, it is likely that it swims at different times. I don’t know if Muscovy’s are meant to wild or domestic but it could’ve escaped it’s home and is living just fine with the flock of other ducks

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Looks like a duck to me. I see duck feet. What about it looks like a chicken to you? Google Muscovy duck.

 

[chkncrazy]

Def a muscovy duck, and healthy at that. You can relax it is not a freak hybrid. Glad you came to us first

 

[The Moonshiner]

Were there any white turkeys hanging around those ducks?

 

[Tewinkle]

No turkeys that I’ve seen. Thanks for the quick feedback everyone. I guess I was curious because I recently saw a lone chicken with similar coloring (all white with red on the head) and I’ve never seen a Muscovy duck in Southern California in all my 36 years here. So it was the coloring, the long claws and the way it moves it’s head and neck that seemed more chicken like. Haha. Oh well. Glad I can just enjoy without concern. Thanks again!

 

[casportpony]

Were there any white turkeys hanging around those ducks?

.

 

[casportpony]

No turkeys that I’ve seen. Thanks for the quick feedback everyone. I guess I was curious because I recently saw a lone chicken with similar coloring (all white with red on the head) and I’ve never seen a Muscovy duck in Southern California in all my 36 years here. So it was the coloring, the long claws and the way it moves it’s head and neck that seemed more chicken like. Haha. Oh well. Glad I can just enjoy without concern. Thanks again!

Someone probably dumped him off there.

 

[Ra_]

I once had a Muscovy duckling drown.
There was about 20 of them.
He must have gotten trampled.