On March 20th, while scanning the scaup flock from the West Haven Boat Ramp, I noticed a hybrid Tufted Duck. Luckily there were no tense moments here - with the sun at my back, though the bird was distant, the dark gray (not black) back and short, blunt-ended tuft immediately declared this bird as a scaup hybrid and not a bona fide Tufted. While a pure TUDU would have been preferred, this is a life hybrid, and a cool one at that.
The bird was too far to document by handheld phone-scoping. I tried. As luck would have it, I put my boat in the water early this year, and it happened to be located in this very same harbor. I hopped on the boat and tried to approach the scaup flocks, a process that turned out more difficult than I had hoped. The flocks were flighty. I've gotten close to ducks in this boat before, but it usually takes finesse. These flocks, though, were especially spooky.
I eventually refound the bird among the scattered Greater Scaup flocks and got as close as I could (which was not very close at all). Still, record photos were obtained.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfpBj4bi0ZbB-PrBnQSIZaF5G_FUi_T1kKK9yaFj9z9DUfNxGzfYt6VNuCpipbMc5a85aB5N3GsYrB3Gtx5sJJWFN6IhLhzwgzQvM-qlYPZavfECdI6F4ruhazifYjzepY4ggwYRH2Qhr4/s1600/1J1A4500.JPG) |
did look rather black-backed at certain angles |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLxlveq4eQqjJYAqYU7QHlY-UnahvvTjFXILatPwY7FY4dTDui-N91ju3UakCgGMY_84_8cP63P_alLkP4JAzAZeV7u6E6sx28PLuIqQj9tsh55NA-_sBHGXQ2iRFzfcXp0_93QP0SuPJP/s1600/1J1A4517.JPG) |
with Greater Scaup |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwSOp1x5c7EJjRVMCzeqjiEog-NSvPRhVgzSqhxfUCbJCJ-Meowheb0SQ4683FICp4n5-fyxG4e4GcoEUnokIpogK3oqxAiU5aVPJ_OXvxwvLT86eCp-VjwLt8SdP6a61YSMFRHKhGqS_Y/s1600/1J1A4526.JPG) |
with Greater Scaup |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYZ5msGajwChEkSZKfZ6GycFCwWOMsoppo9qk7TEwrYtWpWHdyvRm9KWCmJQ8TQn-sGqrEx4XXE-7ExVHzwni8_BUi1xlaR4FzDUSbyc1u5ffrxjB5q4sfXbSkt2O6pmTS0ZhzLwsW0D5F/s1600/1J1A4543.JPG) |
bottom right, as marked |
Separating scaup from each other can be difficult enough, so confidently assigning the scaup parent to species is a whole other level of difficulty. Comments are welcome, as always.
- Nick
Looks like possibly a Greater X Tufted, but I am no expert with hybrids (:
ReplyDeleteLooks like a tufted duck.
ReplyDelete