Hey Nancy, duck ID help

Everything I see looks like a cross with a wood duck but I'm usually not very good at these

 

Spencer the side pockets do look like wood duck and it looks like from what I can see the breast might have the white checks in it like a wood duck

 

I cannot concur nor disagree...but please...stop calling me Nancy...

 

Is a pintail mallard cross a possibility here?

 

Pintail crosses usually end up with a green speculum and the white stripe in the face like a pintial. Then the yellow feet would throw pintail out.

 

I have pics of pin/mallard crosses with both orange and yellow feet... I just mounted one, it's feet were more dirty orange however... Hard to tell with a soaking wet bird. Those side pockets do resemble woodie a bit.,.

 

I think it's 100% mallard, but that it had some issues at around the time it was moulting out of either its juvenile plumage (most likely) or its eclipse plumage. I have only seen one other mallard where that happened and I have seen one GW teal with the same situation.
What I *think* happens is this:

As you probably know, the change in color is triggered by a change in hormones. Normally the hormone level changes when there are no pinfeathers present so the next plumage comes in just as you would expect. Once in a while, though, maybe due to injury (plucked feathers normally start to grow back immediately, regardless of the season) or maybe due to the bird being a late hatch, the hormone levels will change while a feather is in the process of growing. In that case you can get a feather that is eclipse colored on the tip and breeding plumage colored closer to the skin. Vice-versa is also possible if they get plucked or injured while in their breeding plumage..
In the in-between part of a growing feather you can get some really weird combinations as the follicle tries to compromise. For instance, you might get the eclipse pattern of wide bars that would normally be made with shades of brown, but they could instead be made with the grey and charcoal pigments of the breeding plumage. Another possibility could be the fine silver-grey vermiculation pattern of breeding plumage being made with shades of brown. It only takes a short time for the hormones to change, and feathers grow very fast, so it is pretty rare to find those transition feathers.
If you look closely you may find some similarly confused feathers in the reddish brown breast feathers.


The two-tone feet are just freezer burned and then partly rehydrated - there's nothing unusual about them at all.

 

Still a Mallard