Re: [cobirds] Reporting Muscovy Duck to eBird.

Joe

What about S Texas?

Ira Sanders

On Sun, Oct 6, 2019, 8:34 AM Joe Roller <jroller9@gmail.com> wrote:

Instead of succumbing to the usual Sunday morning ennui and hunger pangs, I explored the topic of reporting "Muscovy Duck" on eBird checklists. 

* See below for links to recipes.

** There is a whole page of information in the eBird Help section about all the ins and outs of the three ways to report MUDU on an eBird checklist.

To boil it down (see below for links to recipes*), ebird distinguishes among three categories (aka "flavors") of "Muscovy Duck".

1) Muscovy Ducks happily inhabit Central and South America. "Happily", that is, except for the frightened and thus secretive ones hunted for sport and/or food.**

ebird wants those reported as:

"Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata)". 

So if you are birding in Costa Rica where Muscovy Ducks "belong", that is the way to report them and thereby add them to your Costa Rica list. None in this "wild" category can be seen in Colorado and if reported to eBird, will not appear on your Colorado eBird list.

2) In a very few parts of the world, eg, South Florida (and Portugal of all places), Muscovy Ducks have well-established, stable, breeding populations and are properly reported as:

Muscovy Duck (Established Feral) (Cairina moschata (Established Feral))

(Notice the sweet use of the double end parentheses marks). (Or sweet and sour, I suppose).

In those widely separated locales, Muscovy Duck is "countable" on your Florida or Portuguese list.

3)  Finally the Muscovy Ducks that we see in Colorado are properly reported as:

Muscovy Duck (Domestic type) (Cairina moschata (Domestic type))

These ducks may have been present at a location for many years, but they are not considered  "established" in the ornithological sense of the word - "many generations of a stable or growing population of breeding birds, free of re-introductions". They will not appear on your eBird checklist.

So, yes, enjoy gazing at these embarrassed, red-faced, plump waterfowl, and recognize that

they belong in the same category as Colorado's Mandarin Ducks, Black Swans and Mute Swans.

This is a good time to set your oven to 400 degrees F.

* https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1569-roast-muscovy-duck

When roasted, the duck undergoes the well-known "Maillard reaction", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction,

bringing out delicious, savory flavors. Named after French chemist Louis-Camille Maillard and not to be confused with the "Mallard reaction". 

  https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/pan-roasted-muscovy-duck-breast-with-a-clementine-tomatillo-sauce-recipe-1924675

"When young, these ducks are considered very good eating, with lean, tender meat, with a taste more like veal than other duck. (Previously I had assumed that they "taste like chicken"). As a Muscovy Duck gets old, its flesh can get stringy and acquire a musky taste and odor. 

** https://help.ebird.org/customer/en/portal/articles/2259953-reporting-muscovy-ducks-to-ebird?b_id=1928

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