Black East Indian

About the Black East Indian

The Black East Indian carries only one colour, and it is the whole point of the breed: a base of solid extended black overlaid with a lustrous beetle-green sheen that flashes as light catches the feather structure, best seen under the wings on top show birds. The black gene is epistatic and shared with the North American Cayuga. Drakes hold their colour, but females typically develop white patches with age, and brown pencilling under the wings or throat betrays impure blood. Combined with its bill, legs and even near-black early eggs, this jet plumage marks the oldest and rarest of bantam ducks, kept purely for ornament and the show bench.