[texbirds] Re: Brunswick Lake Duck - Last Evening's Attempt and An Opinion on the Identification
- From: David Sarkozi <david@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Ron Weeks <ronweeks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2014 14:20:25 -0600
I am currently sold on the Mottled Duck ID of this bird. I've looked
at a huge number of duck photos in the last 48 hours. A mark that
Cin-Ty pointed out that seems very consistent is the area above the
lore is dusky on a American Black Duck. There is almost none, or even
no contrast between this area and the lore and crown. The amount of
duskiness does vary, even to the point where there is not a
supercillium, just a dark cap on the bird, but in every case I could
find this dusky area in front of the eye was present. None of mine or
any other photos of this bird show any of this duskiness.
Field Guides just don't really treat separating these two species very
well yet. I don't mind putting myself out there in a discussion like
this when it goes so cordially. A discussion like this raises the
level of skill collectively.
On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 1:01 PM, Ron Weeks <ronweeks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> TexBirders,
> As previously posted, I could not find the possible American Black Duck
> yesterday afternoon. All Mark Kulstad and I could find were 8 Mottled Ducks.
> After my dentist appointment not too far away, I returned for a dusk hit
> thinking maybe it would return to roost. I did find more ducks with my
> Mottled count going to 25. But alas, nothing I was even tempted to call an
> American Black Duck. When I got home, I took a look at Dennis Shepler's
> pictures of the bird taken yesterday morning. His shots show the flank
> feathers with fairly broad edges and a clear buffy throat that were not as
> clearly visible on the original photos. I do not claim to be a true expert
> on the Mallard-like species swarm, but this bird looks well within the
> expected variation of the race (maculosa) of Mottled that resides here in
> Texas - see Eric Carpenter's post referring to Greg Lasley's site and read
> the text on the left of the photos. As the title says, this is my "opinion"
> and
> I realize others may have very different ones.
>
> Regardless, kudos to David Sarkozi for looking carefully, noticing something
> was different and alerting others. This is how rare birds are found and
> shared.
>
> Ron Weeks
> Lake Jackson
>
> Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
> //www.freelists.org/list/texbirds
>
> Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission
> from the List Owner
>
>
--
David Sarkozi
Houston, TX
(713) 412-4409 twitter ID dsarkozi
Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
//www.freelists.org/list/texbirds
Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission
from the List Owner
Other related posts:
