It is probably 100% hen mallard, but you would have to check to vent to make sure. It has no hybrid in it, speculum is the dead giveaway.
Hens will express drake plumage when female hormones like progesterone and estrogen are overruled by basal expression of the dominant male hormone testosterone.
It is basically a hen that has messed up hormones. We usually shoot a few each year.
The beak and feet (soft skin) are the least sensitive to hormonal regulation. Which is why we still see the hen beak and it has not changed (and why, as John pointed out, they do not fluctuated during independent hormonal regulation that causes molting, and why it is the way to ID eclipse drake mallards). It is why the beak is one of the most important characteristics used for identification. If you would have compared the beak length of the hen to a drake you would have found that the hen had a slightly smaller beak.
Another side point, everyone refers to drakes with crappy plumage late in the year as young drakes. While that is true to an extent with the very late hatches, it is more than likely because of genetic reasons rather than the drake simply being too young. The regulation of plumage is highly variable, not just because the bird is young. I.e. crappy plumage is just because of inferior genetics and not because the bird is simply young.
PO
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