This is Alphonso and he’s the loneliest duck in the world. He’s a Mandarin duck (Aix galericulata) and he turned up at Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes National Park in the spring of 2014, origins unknown. Mandarin ducks aren’t native to New Zealand, there isn’t an introduced population and it’s unlikely he found his way from somewhere-not-New-Zealand to Rotoiti under his own steam, which means he’s probably an escapee from a private breeder. This photo shows Alphonso while he’s moulting into his eclipse plumage, so he’s looking pretty scruffy. Every spring, he moults into spectacular breeding plumage, only to be rebuffed by the local mallards.
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