This is Alphonso and he was a lone Mandarin duck (Aix galericulata) who 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 was probably an escapee from a private breeder. This photo, taken early in 2018, shows Alphonso while he was moulting into his eclipse plumage, so he was looking pretty scruffy. Every spring, he would moult into spectacular breeding plumage, only to be rebuffed by the local mallards. We went back this spring to get some photos of him in breeding plumage but couldn’t find him. A local told us he hadn’t been seen since April and that for all of Alphonso’s time at the lake, people had regularly asked if they could take him home. Then we heard about the Central Park mandarin. Alphonso?
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