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Showing posts from March, 2012

Probable intergrade Green-winged Teal

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This afternoon, while searching through migrant Green-winged Teal in the marsh at Milford Point (CT), one particular drake stood out among the rest. What caught my eye initially was a hint of a white horizontal stripe on the bird's lower scapulars. While "American" Green-winged Teal ( Anas crecca carolinensis ) often show a thin buffy or whitish edge to their lower scaps, this bird was exhibiting a subtly stronger and whiter line, like a thin and faint shadow of the typically bold white horizontal stripe of a "Common" or "Eurasian" Green-winged Teal ( Anas crecca crecca ) - thus catching my eye. Once locked onto this bird I noticed that it was sporting a significantly thinner vertical white bar on its breast side. The bird was very easy to track as it mingled among several dozen teal. While either of these features by itself might be chalked up to individual variation in A. c. carolinensis , I believe that their combined presence is strongly indicative