Welcome to the GRC Recorders pages. This blog provides details on all the relevant news of Glamorgan’s scarcer birds, plus all BBRC & WRP decisions that affect us locally. It will also be used to document the status and occurrence of these scarcer species and we welcome contributions from anyone with photographs, artwork or documentation of rarities past, present and future. The GRC also welcomes all seawatching news from around Glamorgan and news of passage migrants in spring & autumn, uncommon birds in our area and unusual behaviour.
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Wednesday 27 January 2016
ScaupxTufted Duck Hybrid at Kenfig Pool
Some digiscoped phone images from this morning. Certainly a striking bird.
Hi William - it has the look of a female scaup but the bill pattern of a tufted duck. Size appears too small for scaup although that's harder to judge from my terrible pictures!
After originally thinking it was a female Scaup when I first found it, I saw it again today and I think Dave is right - the bird also showed a hint of a tuft at certain angles. Good call.
From my experience in the USA and UK Greater Scaup can be as small as some Lesser Scaup which in general is smaller than Tufted Duck so I'm not sure the size is an issue. The lack of gray in the body plumage suggests this might be a first winter bird which may also explain the size. If the bird stays it would be interesting to see what the bird looks like in the spring. The extent of the bill tip coloration in Greater is less than tufted but more than Lesser and as such looks similar to Tufted from the side but less from head on as your bird does. I can see a hint of a tuft in one of your photos but it looks too low down on the head and is maybe due to displaced feathers. The blaze looks fine for Greater Scaup maybe too good for an hybrid. Having said all that there's nothing like seeing the bird in the field....... I'm not saying you are wrong just that maybe such birds are called as hybrid perhaps too readily.
4 comments:
Why do you think this bird is an hybrid?
Hi William - it has the look of a female scaup but the bill pattern of a tufted duck. Size appears too small for scaup although that's harder to judge from my terrible pictures!
After originally thinking it was a female Scaup when I first found it, I saw it again today and I think Dave is right - the bird also showed a hint of a tuft at certain angles. Good call.
From my experience in the USA and UK Greater Scaup can be as small as some Lesser Scaup which in general is smaller than Tufted Duck so I'm not sure the size is an issue. The lack of gray in the body plumage suggests this might be a first winter bird which may also explain the size. If the bird stays it would be interesting to see what the bird looks like in the spring. The extent of the bill tip coloration in Greater is less than tufted but more than Lesser and as such looks similar to Tufted from the side but less from head on as your bird does. I can see a hint of a tuft in one of your photos but it looks too low down on the head and is maybe due to displaced feathers. The blaze looks fine for Greater Scaup maybe too good for an hybrid. Having said all that there's nothing like seeing the bird in the field....... I'm not saying you are wrong just that maybe such birds are called as hybrid perhaps too readily.
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