Female-type Ferruginous Duck X Pochard

On friday the 11.th of November 2011, Johnny Madsen found what at first looked like a Ferruginous Duck, in a small pond near Stege, 75 km south of Copenhagen.
Johnny send a few photos to WWW.Netfugl.dk where it quickly was identified as a hybrid. I saw the bird on sunday, and was honestly surprised about the bird´s appearance.
When the bird first was seen, it was observed in a distance about 200 meters in poorly foggy morninglight, and then looked like a genuine Ferruginous Duck. When the bird later swam against me it transformed into a hybrid.

Female-type Ferruginous Duck X Pochard, note the bill-shape and size. On a Ferruginous Duck the bill seems slim, long and not as broad as on this bird. The bill pattern is also a indication of Pochard influence, it has a broad black bill-tip, with a silver-grey marking on a overall dark bill.

Female-type Ferruginous Duck X Pochard, note the breast on the bird, the colour is clearly darker than head and flanks. in some angles it allmost seemed blackish.

Female-type Ferruginous Duck X Pochard, the bill is the key to the id of the bird, note that the lower mandible is convex, on Ferruginous Duck it´s straight.

Female-type Ferruginous Duck X Pochard, note how pale the bird is, it is only the head that seems redishbrown, the rest of the bird is almost without gloss.

All videos is of the same bird.

Ferruginous Duck or Hybrid?

This Duck was found during one of my "Ducking" trips to Maribosøerne, a larger lake area in the south of Denmark. The bird was first seen on August 29th. 2010, and the again Spetember 12th 2010. The bird might be identical to a bird seen September 26th. 2009, which first was ID`ed as a Ferruginous but this might be wrong.

It is obvious that Ferruginous Duck has a influence in the bird, but is it a genuine Ferruginous? When we saw it in 2010, we were convinced that it was a hybrid, due to the fact that the bird is very pale.

Ferruginous Duck or Hybrid, from video, note that the flanks and the breast is quite pale compared to the head.

Ferruginous Duck or Hybrid, on this shot the bid seems to be almost Female Tufted Duck-colored, but note how the white vent seems to reach the side of the pump.

Ferruginous Duck or Hybrid, on this photo it seems ok for a Ferruginous Duck, blackish upperparts, burgundy brown flanks and head, and a large white vent patch.

Ferruginous Duck or Hybrid, on this shot it really seems to be bright, and it also seems to have some greyish feathers in the back. Note also the bill, which has a black tip to a all dark greyish bill.

Ferruginous Duck or Hybrid, the headshape is steep in the forehead, and it has a rather big bill. On a genuine Ferruginoud the forehead is normally more rounded and the bill is slimmer.

 Ferruginous Duck or Hybrid, again its a dull bird whit a large bill. Note the light marking along the bill.

Ferruginous Duck or Hybrid.

Ferruginous Duck or Hybrid, the wing stripe is in my opinion not all there, it seems to small, and in my opinion it is greyish in the primaries. The belly is however in favour of a genuine Ferruginous Duck, due to it´s clean white appearance.

All videos of the bird;

Comments on the ID on this bird is very welcome!

 

Ferruginous Duck x Pochard 25-07-2011

Today Tim Hesselballe Hansen and I, found this Duck at Slivsø near Haderslev in Denmark.
The bird was in size bigger than Tufted duck. More details on ID follows later on.

Ferruginous Duck 16-07-2011

Today Morten Kofoed Hansen, Jimmy Skat Hansen and I, went Ducking at Maribosøerne in the southern part of Denmark. Maribosøerne is a lake area which has hosted Ferruginous Duck each year since 2004 except in 2007. At least five different birds has been seen. The first bird was found 31-10-2004, an adult male. Todays bird is probably the same individual which has been seen almost every year since.

Adult male, swimming to the left (top). Note the Red-crested Pochard.


Photo: Morten Kofoed Hansen, July 2011, Dornæs Maribo.


The bird today was found and identified by Morten Kofoed Hansen, and was seen in a flock with app. 400 Pochard, 7 Red-crested Pochard and even 2 Garganey. In the area also a Quail was heard and two White-tailed Eagle`s seen.

Changes on Ducks by Strack and friends

Currently i am working on the design of the blog, which i hope is over soon.

If you have some interesting photos of some Ducks, i´ll gladly use them on the blog. Please send them to malerfirmaetrs@sol.dk

This odd duck is one of the birds we´ll work on, at a later time.

Tufted Duck X Common Pochard at Selsø Sø 16/3-2011

Today Jacob Engelhard found a Aythya-hybrid, at first he suspected that the bird had Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) as one of it´s parents.
After a short talk on the phone we had identifyed the bird as a hybrid Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) X Common Pochard (Aythya ferina).
The bird was found during a check of a larger flock of Aythya´s, in Selsø sø in Denmark. 

Adult male, even in this photo which is overexposed, the bird is easily identifyed. Note the short semi tuft in the back of the crown, which reveals it as a hybrid. The head has a purple gloss, and the eye was noted as orangeyellow. Note also the black tip of the all dark grey bill.

Photo: Jacob Engelhard, March 2011, Selsø sø.

Adult male, note the size of the bird, it is clearly larger than Tufted Ducks. Also note the greyish flanks, a bit darker grey mantle.

Photo: Jacob Engelhard, March 2011, Selsø sø.

If you have some photos of either aythya´s,  melanitta´s or other ducks, we will be glad to receive them, and maybe they´ll be a case on the web. Please send them to malerfirmaetrs@sol.dk 

Ring-necked Duck x Tufted duck

This hybrid type is quite rare. This is explained by one parent species having it's natural breeding range in North America and the other is a Eurasian species. In Denmark there is only four individuals which have been acceptes as this combination of species by the rarittees commitee as beeing this hybrid type.

Apperance:
The size is similar the parent species length: 37-47 cm and wingspan: 65-72 cm.
The plumage show caracteristics of both parent species as well as plumage features not seen in any of the. Male hybrids tend to be more similar to Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) than Tufted duck (Aythya fuligula).

Adult male: Adult males of this cross show black breast, back, rump and tail just as both parent species. The flanks are a lighter tone of grey than and the extending further towards the breast than on pure Ring-necked Duck. Between the grey flank and black breast there is a thin line of white often extending in a thorn pointing towards the head and neck thus resembling the pattern seen in pure Ring-necked Duck but the white area seen in hybrids are not a broad as seen in pure Ring-necked Duck. The bill is similar to that of Ring-necked Duck being slightly larger, longer and more pointed than in Tufted duck with a large black spot on the nail and front of the bill and behind that there is a broad white band across the bill. The overall colour of the bill is lighter grey than seen in pure Ring-necked Duck and the white line running along the base of the bill in Ring-necked Duck is often missing, very thin or not running all the way around the bill. The colour of the head is black with a bottle green shine. A plumage feature not seen in any of the parent species but typical of this hybrid combination. As in many hybrids with Tufted duck there is a little quite thick “semi” tuft at the rear of the crown. The tuft is not hanging as in Tufted duck but pointing backwards up in an angle of 45°. The eye colour is orange the tone is a little warmer than seen in Tufted duck. The tail is often kept lifted in an angle of 45° as often seen done by Ring-necked Duck. The cheeks are fuller than in Tufted duck looking like a light version of the “apple cheeks” of Ring-necked Duck. Two types of wing-bars have been described one is a combination of the two parent species often being white on the secondaries as in Tufted duck and darker grey on the primaries as in Ring-necked Duck in the other type both secondaries and primaries. The legs are grey with a yellow tinge and black webbing.
As in most hybrid types many of the plumage features are varying and in some individuals the tuft might be a little longer, the flanks might lack the white stripe behind the breast and the colours of the wing band might be a little different distributed but if you see what you think is a Ring-necked Duck with green head gloss and a little tuft it is most probably a hybrid with Tufted duck.

Key plumage features: Small thick tuft, green head gloss, light grey flanks and big black spot on the front of the overall grey bill bordered by a thick white band.

Ring-necked Duck (A. collaris) x Tufted duck (A. fuligula), Adult male. Note difference in flank colour in two photos due to light and angle towards photographer. Photo: Troels Eske Ortvad. Gavnø, Denmark. February 2011. Note blue-grey Ring-necked Duck like bill with almost no white boarder at bill base, short "punk" tuft, green head gloss, light grey flank, small white area in between grey flank and and black breast and warm orange eye.

Ring-necked Duck (A. collaris) x Tufted duck (A. fuligula), Adult male. Photo by Ómar Runólfsson. May 14, 2010. Reykjavík, Iceland. Note Light blue-grey Ring-necked Duck like bill, short thick tuft pointing upwards, very light grey flank with almost no contrast to white area just behind breast.

Female (adult?): As in male hybrids the bill of female hybrids resembles a damp variation of a pure Ring-necked Duck by having a big black spot on the front with a broad white band across the bill behind. Bill shape is as in male hybrids more like Ring-necked Duck being longer and more pointed than seen in Tufted duck. Head shape is intermediate between the parent species being less square than Tufted duck with a slight peaked rear crown at the back of the head resembling the hump seen in Ring-necked Duck. The colour of the head is intermediate between the two parent species being darker than Ring-necked Duck and lighter than Tufted duck. It has a lighter cheek resembling head pattern of female Ring-necked Duck and it lacks the brilding of the latter species. In the front of the head just behind the bill there is a relatively slim white line like the one seen in Ring-necked Duck females. Both females of Tufted- and Ring-necked Duck show dark brown back and lighter brown flanks this is also seen in the hybrid. The colour of the breast is somewhat intermediate being lighter brown than the back and darker than the flank. The eye colour is milk chocolate brown slightly lighter than seen in Ring-necked Duck. The belly is white and the legs are grey with a yellow tinge with and black webbing.

Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) x Tufted duck (A. fuligula) female. Photo by: Sveinn Jónsson. Reykjavík, Iceland. March 25, 2010. Note light blue-grey Ring-necked Duck like bill and intermediate head shape and lack of brilding.

Ring-necked Duck (A. collaris) x Tufted duck (A. fuligula) female hybrid (left), male hybrid (upper right). With Tufted duck male and female (the two middle birds) and Ring-necked Duck male (lower right). Photo by Ómar Runólfsson. May 14, 2010. Reykjavík, Iceland. This picture allow the wiewer to compare both male and female hybridst to pure male and female Tufted duck and male Ring-necked Duck. Note that the female hybrid show lack of brilding, light blue-grey Ring-necked Duck like bill, head shape near to that of Ring-necked Duck, lighter brown colour on flank, breast aand back compared to the female Tufted duck standing behind and light patch on the cheek. The male hybrid show small tuft light blue-grey Ring-necked Duck like bill with less white than the pure male standing in front and very light grey flank.

Ring-necked Duck (A. collaris) male, and hybrid Ring-necked Duck (A. collaris) x Tufted Duck (A. fuligula) female
Photo by: Gunnlaugur Sigurjónsson. Elliðaárstífla, Reykjavík Iceland. March 20, 2010. Note blue-greyRing-necked Duck like bill, lack of brilding, intermediate head shape, light cheek and intermediate body colour and head shape.

Ring-necked Duck X Tufted Duck at Gavnø Denmark

The 12th. of March 2006 Lars Michael Nielsen found a hybrid Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) X Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula), at Gavnø near Næstved in Denmark, the bird was seen until the 18th.

To my surprice a hybrid identical to the 2006 bird, was found by Sebastian Klein and Troels Eske Ortvad, at that same place on the 22th. of February this year, the bird might still be there.

Adult male, note the typical bill pattern, very like that of Ring-necked. A large black bill tip, with a broad white band on a greyish bill. Note also that this hybrid type seem to have a bottle green gloss.

Photo: Troels Eske Ortvad, February 2011, Gavnø.

Adult male, note the grey flank with only a small white stripe in front.

Photo: Troels Eske Ortvad, February 2011, Gavnø.

Adult male, note the short broad tuft compared to that of Tufted Duck.

Photo: Torben Sebro, February 2011, Gavnø.

Adult male, could easily be misidentified as a genuine Ring-necked Duck, but note that the bird is missing white at the base of the bill around the nostril, and note again the bottle green gloss of the head.

Photo: Torben Sebro, February 2011, Gavnø.

Adult male, note the tail, the bird kept it like this at all time, what Ring-necked often do aswell.


Photo: Rasmus Strack, March 2006, Gavnø

Stejneger´s Scoter at Blåvand Denmark

The first Stejneger´s Scoter (Melanitta deglandi stejnegeri) was found by Tim Hesselballe Hansen at Blåvandshuk on the 12 th. October 2009. The bird stayed for the next couple of days and then was only seen briefly in March 2010. Now the bird is back, it has been seen regularly since the 18 th. of Febuary 2011.

This Saturday the 5 th. of March 2011, some of Denmark´s best birders gathered in a common pact, to get some decent photos of the bird.
Tomorrow we will look for the bird again and hope to get better video and photos!

Today Sunday the 6 th. of March 2011, the bird was (to our surprice) not to be found, only the Black Scoter (Melanitta americana) was seen.

 

This video was filmed the 5. th March in the late afternoon, approximately 1000 meters southeast of the lighthouse.

Adult male, note the white "nike-logo" under and behind the eye. The bill color is mostliy red but it has the diagnostic yellow lick along the bill rim.

Adult male, the knob is clear, note that the color is mostly yellow form this angle. 

Adult male, note how the profile is similar to that of Eider (Somaterica mollissima).



All these photos is video-snapshots, created by Rune Sø Nerrgaard. Video taken by Rasmus Strack.

Tufted Duck X Common Pochard

This bird was refound today 1th. of March 2011 by Troels Eske Ortvad at Christianshavn Denmark.
Apparently this is the same bird as the one found in February 2009 by Jørgen Munk Petersen, at the same lokation.

Details how to ID this type, will follow soon. 

Adult male, the big black tip of the bill, the orangeyellow iris, the draker grey mantel, and the short tuft   reveals it as a hybrid. Note however the slightly grey on the flank. If the bird was a hybrid Tuftet Duck X Greater Scaup it would look like the bird blow.

Photo: Troels Eske Ortvad, March 2011, Christianshavn.

Adult male, Tufted Duck X Greater Scaup, compared to the bird above, this bird has a green gloss to the head. Also note the small black nail, the clean yellow iris and the pure white flank.

Photo: Rasmus Strack, February 2005, Kattinge vig.

Adult male, the same bird as above from Christianshavn.

Aythya hybrid 27/02-2011

This odd aythya was found by Tim Hesselballe Hansen at Faaborg Marina Fuen Denmark today the 27th Feb 2011.


In my opinion this bird is a Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) X Common Pochard (Aythya ferina), it might even be a backcross with Tufted Duck.



This bird might look like a Tufted Duck, but several characters reveals it as a hybrid.
Note first of all the slightly paler mantle. The iris is duller yellow and the tuft is short. The nostril is long and slim, and the shape of the bill is closer to that of Common Pochard. 

If the bird was a 1g hybrid, it would have a clear contrast between mantle and the brast. The tuft would often be a shorter bunp in the back, the colour of the head is darker mahogany and the iris is orangeyellow. The bill pattern is normaly a big black tip and it showes a paler band over it, and form base down to the nostrills is dark grey.      

Adult male, the black nail is slightly larger that on Tufted Duck. Note how the bill seems almost straight on the lower part.

Photo: Tim Hesselballe Hansen, February 2011, Faaborg Marina.
 

Adult male, note the short tuft and how the mantle is just slightly brighter than the black parts of the bird.

Photo: Tim Hesselballe Hansen, February 2011, Faaborg Marina.

Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis)

The Lesser Scaup is the smaller of the North American aythya-ducks. The length is 38-45 cm. (15-18") and the wing-span is 66-74 cm. (25"). The size is notably smaller than Greater Scaup (Aythya marila), and is more like a Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) in size.

It breeds in the western parts of North America, and winters in almost all of the states, down to the northen parts of South America. The species was first reported from Europe, may 1985 in Denmark. Today it´s a frequent vagrant to Europe, with approximately 15-20 records a year. It´s normaly found in freshwater, but in winter it may be found in harbours etc. if freshwater is not accessible.   

The jizz of the Lesser Scaup is characteristic. It´s a small aythya with less bulky body than Greater Scaup. It has a short neck, rounded forehead and a distinct squared off "bump" on the crown. The peak of the crown is placed behind the eye and the nape often seems steep with a tiny rounding. The bill is smaller and not so broad as that of Greater Scaup.  

2cy male, note the slim crown and the rounded cheeks. The bill is powerful, and the colour is light steelblue. The nail is black and the length of it is the same as the slim nostril. The bird is aged by the brown feathers on the blackish breast.


Photo: Rasmus Strack, May 2008, Vancouver Canada

Adult male, note the barring on the back. The slender dark bars makes the back brighter than rump. The black barring broadens the further back it goes towards the rump. The tertials seems almost black at a distance. The flanks are normally darker in front than further back.
The peak of the head is behind the eye, and note the tiny rounded nape. The black nail of the bill is normally hard to see from this angle.

Photo: Rasmus Strack, May 2008, Vancouver Canada

2cy female, note the typical headshape with the small bump in the rear of the crown.
The white spot surrounding bill-base is normally offwhite, compared to the pure white on Greater Scaup. The bird is aged by the dark brownish iris, in adult it´s dull yellow.

Photo: Rasmus Strack, May 2008, Vancouver Canada

2cy female, same as above. Note how the white at the bill-base is broader off the eye. Often it´s just a small rounded spot on top of the bill, and might be missing underneath. The bill is brighter coloured than on Tufted Duck. Note how the slim nostril becomes obvious, do to the fact that the colour surrounding them is brighter  than the rest of the bill.

Photo: Rasmus Strack, May 2008, Vancouver Canada

 

 This 2cy male was filmed at Rosklide harbour Denmark in March 2010. This was only the 7th. danish record. Note how the colour of the head changes form green to violet.