Mixed Flocks & Hybrid Ducks [NEW RARES]

[paper field]

Despite being over 15 years old, theHunter Classic still does quite a few things better than COTW, one of which being duck hunting. A part of what made duck hunting Classic so much more fun was the fact that we were able to hunt mixed species flocks, something I think COTW lacks. However unlike Classic, COTW wouldn’t have every flock of ducks be made up of multiple species but instead have them be a relatively uncommon find (maybe 10-20%?) as these flocks typically form in winter and all the best waterfowl maps are set in other seasons.

These new flocks could also come with new rare plumage types, these of course being hybrids. Each hybrid would be a potential rare fur type for one of the two species it’s a part of, for instance a mallard x black duck hybrid would be a rare for either mallard or black duck and not both.
These rares would be more common in mixed flocks (.5%) but would still appear in the standard one species flocks (.05%)

Mallard x Pacific Black Duck

Sharp-Winged Teal x Wood Duck

Gadwall x Northern Pintail

Mallard x American Wigeon

[naive spire]

I'd enjoy mixed flocks in-game they are very common among some species combinations irl

Mallard x Eurasian wigeon

Goldeneye x bufflehead

Mallard x Eurasian teal

Mallard x American black duck

Goldeneye x hooded merganser

Greylag x canada goose

@paper field I'd say there's a fair bit of hybrids in-game

[paper field]

Yes but I’d like if the rares could be either species as opposed to solely one, which is admittedly a rather unnecessary change but still something I feel would fit well

[paper field]

bump

[hazy yacht]

Is there also a goldeneye x merganser hybrid?

[naive spire]

Yes (hooded merganser)

[hazy yacht]

That’s really cool. What about the hybrids for greylag and for Canada goose? What are they hybrids of?

[naive spire]

The greylag goose hybrid is based of of Canada goose x graylag goose, here is one I filmed irl

[naive spire]

The white hybrid canada goose looks to be snow goose x Canada goose, I'm not sure of brown hybrid, may be canada x barnacle or greylag

[hazy yacht]

This is really cool. Are you a birder or did you see this hunting or just out in nature?

[naive spire]

Yeah I'm a birder, was a twitch here in spring '23

[hazy yacht]

Dude me too. Are you part of the birding international discord?

[naive spire]

Ye, I'm a mod hatchling there

[hazy yacht]

That’s awesome. I’ve been in there since 2016, used to be so into birding, have a huge feather collection still

[naive spire]

Oh that's so Epic, where you at?

[hazy yacht]

East coast USA. Hbu?

[naive spire]

Sweden but I'm German and down there pretty often