Back a while ago I posted this same video that I thought was a Goose X Duck Hybrid. But I was told that Ducks and Geese can't breed. There's a comment on YouTube now saying that that's a Trumpeter Swan X Canadian Goose Hybrid. So I'll go along with that.
But I also found a link saying that Ducks and Geese can produce offspring also.
While some experienced zoologists say that they have never seen a goose-duck hybrid, one avian expert said it is rare but "absolutely possible."
Wingfield remembers the mother duck and the alleged father goose being an inseparable pair. The alleged father, she said, was protective of the couple's nest.
In the spring, when about 10babies hatched, Wingfield presumed they were ducklings. Six survived and as the six-pack's down gave way to feathers, the watchful director noticed that two of the offspring in particular had some gosling characteristics.
In this here link there are more Barnyard Bird Hybrids to see and read about such as a Guineafowl X Peafowl, Peacock X Chicken, Turkey X Chicken and Hybrids of Chickens X Pheasants.
There doesn't seem to be a Duck X Chicken Hybrid, though I did look around.
This here is a Pheasant X Turkey Hybrid. The image is all I have, no link for details to read about.
And finally this Turkey X Peafowl Hybrid? As MizLinda theorizes it to be. Or perhaps an actual species of a fowl? Sorry no link either to read about. I was lucky enough to have stumbled upon such a beautiful find.
Duck x Chicken would be genetically impossible, as they are 2 completely different families of birds. Ducks, geese and swans are all fairly closely related, within the Anatidae, but they are fairly distant on the bird family tree from the Galliform group (which includes chickens, turkeys, quail, grouse, partridges, pheasants, peafowl, etc).
I've seen a Chicken x Pheasant; it was considerably bigger than either parent species IIRC.
Those photos of the alleged Muscovy Duck x Canada Goose look slightly different from normal Muscovies (although there is a lot of variation among them, and they do get a lot bigger than most ducks), but I don't see an obvious Canada Goose influence in them. Not discounting the possibility, tho.
I've heard of a swan x goose, documented from the 1930s or something, but i'm also not sure if the hybrid in the video is a "swoose". It looks very similar to hybrids i've seen of Canada x domestic geese (which usually come from either Swan Goose or Greylag Goose stock, and in some breeds can be much bigger than any wild goose).
There are several pages online with huge galleries of hybrid duck photos. Mallards hybridise with just about anything they possibly can, and the hybrids are usually fairly easy to identify the other parent species from their colour patterns. Google for "manky mallards", which is what some birdwatchers call them.
I'll try to find the link with the pic of the historical Swan x Goose hybrid...
In this here link, it has this pic calling it a Wild Churkey Hen. I can't find anything on Churkey on the net. So what is it? I was gonna include it in this thread at firt but than I decided not to because I know I already had to many inaccuracies.
Growing up we had turkeys, chickens and guineas. Wild pheasants everywhere and nearby were "usually captive" peacocks, and other exotic birds that we were hard pressed to identify. The interbreeding results were so cool to speculate about. Your photo seems to me a pheasant crossed with a rhode island red chicken. And that's a hen. Based on the fat content after butchering, wrap it in bacon and foil, grill to perfection and gobble, gobble :)
There was once a stuffed hybrid between a big domestic goose and a swan. I havenīt seen it myself, but a guy I know who studies biology has seen it some years ago in the archive of the Museum of Natural History in Vienna.
The bird in the video is a Canada goose x domestic Greylag goose hybrid. This can occur when a barnyard goose either escapes and manages to mate with a wild Canada goose or a wild goose is mated with by a barnyard goose when it lands in a farm field and mingles with domestic geese there. There was one of these hybrids in my area a few years ago and it hung out with a wild Canada goose flock. BTW ducks and geese are in the same family - the Anatidae, although I have never heard of a duck/goose hybrid.
The fact that a mis-matched pair was seen doesn't impress me much - I've seen dogs attempt to mate with members of another Order. Bird behavior is often imprinted and spectacularly 'wrong.' The classic example are the birds following Konrad Lorenz, and hatchlings faithfully following a football, but I've seen geese getting amorous with cars...
