Yeah, I'm gonna have to back track on this one. I looked quickly at the photos
on my phone, and wasn't aware of (or just forgot) the Red-breasted Merganser
that apparently has been being seen in the same area. The head looked a bit
funny but the bird is in molt so I looked over that. Clearly overexposed but
the apparent clean white breast led me to Common.
Finally saw some pics of the male RBME from the Facebook page. That bird has
pale breast molting into eclipse plumage, but still has good bit of the dark
breast band along the sides which I just don't see in these photos, and I think
it should probably be visible even at the angle of the bird in the photo. But
again, Gary's photos are very overexposed so it's probably just washed out. The
bill certainly looks better for RBME, and that's what probably seals it for me.
So I concede to Chris and Mike that this is probably the same bird with
overexposure and viewing angle hiding the remnants of the breast band.
Dean Edwards
Knoxville, TN
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 25, 2017, at 11:06 PM, Michael Todd <birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I must admit I looked at this bird a lot last night, meant to post but time
got away from me. At a glance sure looks like a good fit for Common on
plumage. The bill though, which seems to be the feature I'm most confident
about what I'm actually seeing, looks a lot better to me for Red-breasted on
shape with a fairly thin base, not heavy base tapering to a thin tip as in
Common. Granted, it's hard to be sure exactly what I'm seeing. I had intended
to bring the exposure and white down a little to see if there was any
underlying darkness which would be hard to see with the amount of
overexposure. Red-breasted can get pretty faded this time of year and look
pretty much white below which would be easily lost with a moderate amount of
overexposure.
Hate to disagree with Dean, I'm still not really sure what I'd call this bird
based on just these photos, but would lean towards Red-breasted probably......
Just one opinion....
Michael Todd
Jackson, TN
On Sunday, June 25, 2017 2:34 PM, sparverius <sparverius@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Clearly a male Common Merganser. The plot thickens on this species' recent
breeding season occurrences in TN.
Dean Edwards
Knoxville, TN
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 25, 2017, at 10:56 AM, Gary Lanham <glanham@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Found one more interesting photo of the merganser at Blyth Ferry yesterday.
This one shows the bird with its head twisted, revealing a white chin. But
the head in the prior photos seems to favor Red-breasted to some observers.
Comments, anyone?
Forgot to mention in prior post: Bird was seen at 1311 hours yesterday, 24
JUN 2017.
Rhea County bird
Pixie and Gary Lanham
Signal Mtn, Hamilton county
<Merganser_Rhea_20170624_007_Scrn.jpg>