{"id":1263,"date":"2025-06-06T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/?p=1263"},"modified":"2026-02-20T12:40:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:40:28","slug":"the-golden-eyed-diver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/?p=1263","title":{"rendered":"A Curious Union on Calm Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"43\" data-end=\"348\">With eyes like molten amber, the tufted duck glides silently across the surface. His plumage &#8211; a sharp contrast of inky black and bright white &#8211; shimmers with a faint violet hue in the midday light. This is <em data-start=\"246\" data-end=\"263\">Aythya fuligula<\/em>, a diving duck by nature, known for his grace below the surface as much as above it.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"350\" data-end=\"770\">But what makes this particular male extraordinary is his choice of partner: a female mallard. In a rare display of interspecies pairing, he has successfully mated with <em data-start=\"518\" data-end=\"538\">Anas platyrhynchos<\/em>, and together they are now raising a brood of hybrid ducklings. These young ones, a blend of diving and dabbling ancestry, represent nature\u2019s quiet flexibility &#8211; where instinct, opportunity, and survival intersect in unexpected ways.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"772\" data-end=\"941\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\"><em data-start=\"772\" data-end=\"789\">Aythya fuligula<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With eyes like molten amber, the tufted duck glides silently across the surface. His plumage &#8211; a sharp contrast of inky black and bright white&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-portrait","post_format-post-format-image"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_4350-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1263"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1266,"href":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263\/revisions\/1266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lensbymatthi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}