[3] Approximately one out of every 20 mottled ducks is banded, making it an extremely prized and sought after bird among hunters.

Individuals of both subspecies were introduced into South Carolina in the 1970s and 1980s, where the birds of mixed ancestry have greatly expanded in range, extending through the Atlantic coastal plain of Georgia into northeastern Florida.

Both sexes have a shiny green-blue speculum (wing patch), which is not bordered with white as with the mallard.

The ducks are fairly common within their restricted range; they are resident all-year round and do not migrate.

mtDNA control region sequence data indicates that these birds are derived from ancestral American black ducks, being far more distantly related to the mallard, and that the two subspecies, as a consequence of their rather limited range and sedentary habits, are genetically well distinct already.

[8] While the resultant gene flow is no cause for immediate concern,[note 2] habitat destruction and excessive hunting could eventually reduce this species to the point where the hybridization with mallards would threaten to make it disappear as a distinct taxon.

[9] This especially applies to the Florida mottled duck,[10] in the fairly small range of which rampant habitat destruction due to urbanization and draining of wetlands has taken place in the last decades; this, in combination with climate change affecting the Everglades, could be sufficient to cause the Florida mottled duck to decline to a point where hunting would have to be restricted or prohibited.