[texbirds] Common Crane or Chimeric Crane?

  • From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "drbirdie@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
  • To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 19:04:49 -0500

Hi Texbirders,
Kudos to Justin Bosler for finding an unusual crane up at Muleshoe NWR.
One feature of his photos, though, gives me pause.
The first photo, showing the left side of the bird's head and neck,
&lt;https://www.flickr.com/photos/jboslerbirds/15821481571/in/photostream/&gt;

?looks pretty good for Common Crane, with pale bill, red forecrown, white side 
of the face and neck and dark gray / black down the lower side of the neck.

The second photo, however, which shows the right side of the bird's head and 
neck,

&lt;https://www.flickr.com/photos/jboslerbirds/15638192537/in/photostream/&gt;

shows the entire side of the head and neck as white, without the dark gray / 
black on the underside of the neck.
That does NOT look so good for Common Crane in my opinion, and I am having a 
hard time attributing this merely to glare or lighting.
I am pretty sure that I am not the only observer who has noticed this 
assymetry, but I haven't seen any mention of it in the Texbirds thread so far, 
so I wanted to "put it out there" for whatever it is worth.

Common Crane does hybridize fairly regularly with Hooded Crane, and some of the 
hybrids look a bit like the appearance of this bird in the second photo.

Perhaps new observers will obtain better photos that can clarify or settle the 
issue on this particular bird.
Based on what I can see in Justin's initial photos, I think it would be pretty 
important to get good photos showing the right side of this bird's head and 
neck.
Decent flight photos might also resolve the issue.

Regardless of the exact identity of the bird, it is quite a find.
Sincerely,
Byron Stone, Austin


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