warrech
Quiz #3 (answered)
Answer to Quiz #3 02/11/08-02/18/08
I enjoy multi-bird quizzes because they always remind me to take the time to ID each bird in a large group when I’m in the field. In this week’s quiz we are obviously dealing with ducks and grazing ducks at that. The fact that they are grazing is important because not too many ABA ducks feed in this way. Certainly we can eliminate all diving ducks because of this. I know that personally I have observed many of the Anas ducks grazing as well as geese but little else in this family. Of these the wigeons are best known for grazing and indeed we can see that the center bird facing left is clearly a male AMERICAN WIGEON with the striking head pattern that characterizes them best. If we look at the bird farthest to the left, without a head, we can see that this bird shares all the same field marks that the fully visible American Wigeon that we have already ID’d. Looking around there don’t appear to be any other male American Wigeons in view. However, we do have our first species.
Among the four remaining birds two share several similarities, the front, center bird and the rear right bird. The front, center bird has a strong secondary pattern and warm pink flanks that contrast with a stark, white belly both shared with the rear, right bird. The front bird also has a small, bluish bill and no discernable pattern to the head. These field marks as well as the other two mentioned should narrow our search to Eurasian and American Wigeon females. Even though the head isn’t in focus we can see enough, I believe, to fully ID this bird. Overall, the head is quite gray. Eurasian Wigeon females apparently come in two color phases, gray and rufous. Certainly this isn’t a rufous bird. However, Eurasian females tend to have very uniform heads in comparison to Americans and even though this bird seems rather uniform the dark around the eye suggests American (poorly illustrated in Sibley’s). What Sibley does mention is the grayish, and less patterned back to Eurasian females, something our bird does not share. Even though its not a slam dunk, I believe this bird is an AMERICAN WIGEON female. I have also seen mention of a black border to the base of American Wigeon bills, something very clear on males but I have found in the field this is either too minute to see in many females or simply non-existent in distinct American females. This does not appear to be very reliable but I’d be interested to hear what others have found. Moving on, since we have basically already determined that the right, rear bird is very similar to the front, center bird it is safe to ID this as an American as well, even though we cannot see the head to be completely confident. The female-type bird behind the male in the center also is clearly very similar to our female American Wigeon in front, center. She shares the front bird’s gray head and we can even see a hint of a dark shadow around the eye. I think this is also enough to ID this as another female American Wigeon.
Now all that’s left is the odd-man out, so to speak. The answer breakdown below gives us the list of the guesses for this bird. All were very good guesses and seemed to be based mainly on the head pattern that is visible. Falcated Duck was something that I hadn’t thought of and considering the head visible it isn’t a bad fit. However, one would expect the green to extend down onto the cheek not to mention that the rump pattern does not match for this species. Green-winged Teal also matches quite well for the head pattern but the very distinct rump pattern of this species isn’t present here. Also, Green-winged Teals are noticeably smaller than wigeons. Overall what we can see of the body, gray back, wigeon rump, are quite good for Eurasian Wigeon. Plus the rufous head clearly suggests that species. However, while apparently some “full-blooded” Eurasians have a small green ear patch none should have such a broad area of green, not to mention green on the nape. In fact if this were a black and white photo the pattern of the head would suggest American Wigeon. This pattern is quite common among hybrids between the two wigeon species. I took this picture of an AMERICAN X EURASIAN WIGEON hybrid with a group of AMERICAN WIGEONS at Westmoreland Park in Portland, OR on February 9, 2008. Another photo of the hybrid and a female Eurasian Wigeon taken at the same park is also posted for comparison.
In the end I had 13 responses with only two correct answers. This did seem to trip up quite a few people but I hope it was still fun. I really particularly enjoyed the elaborated responses that I received this week (and in general.) I really like hearing how others came to the conclusions that they did. Thanks to everyone and Good Luck!
ANSWER:
EURASIAN WIGEON X AMERICAN WIGEON – AMERICAN WIGEON
Breakdown for non-American Wigeon answers:
Eurasian Wigeon – 6
Green-winged Teal – 3
Eurasian Wigeon x American Wigeon – 2
Falcated Duck – 1
Congratulations to:
Mike & MerryLynn Denny
Tom Crabtree
Quiz #3 (answered)
Answer to Quiz #3 02/11/08-02/18/08
I enjoy multi-bird quizzes because they always remind me to take the time to ID each bird in a large group when I’m in the field. In this week’s quiz we are obviously dealing with ducks and grazing ducks at that. The fact that they are grazing is important because not too many ABA ducks feed in this way. Certainly we can eliminate all diving ducks because of this. I know that personally I have observed many of the Anas ducks grazing as well as geese but little else in this family. Of these the wigeons are best known for grazing and indeed we can see that the center bird facing left is clearly a male AMERICAN WIGEON with the striking head pattern that characterizes them best. If we look at the bird farthest to the left, without a head, we can see that this bird shares all the same field marks that the fully visible American Wigeon that we have already ID’d. Looking around there don’t appear to be any other male American Wigeons in view. However, we do have our first species.
Among the four remaining birds two share several similarities, the front, center bird and the rear right bird. The front, center bird has a strong secondary pattern and warm pink flanks that contrast with a stark, white belly both shared with the rear, right bird. The front bird also has a small, bluish bill and no discernable pattern to the head. These field marks as well as the other two mentioned should narrow our search to Eurasian and American Wigeon females. Even though the head isn’t in focus we can see enough, I believe, to fully ID this bird. Overall, the head is quite gray. Eurasian Wigeon females apparently come in two color phases, gray and rufous. Certainly this isn’t a rufous bird. However, Eurasian females tend to have very uniform heads in comparison to Americans and even though this bird seems rather uniform the dark around the eye suggests American (poorly illustrated in Sibley’s). What Sibley does mention is the grayish, and less patterned back to Eurasian females, something our bird does not share. Even though its not a slam dunk, I believe this bird is an AMERICAN WIGEON female. I have also seen mention of a black border to the base of American Wigeon bills, something very clear on males but I have found in the field this is either too minute to see in many females or simply non-existent in distinct American females. This does not appear to be very reliable but I’d be interested to hear what others have found. Moving on, since we have basically already determined that the right, rear bird is very similar to the front, center bird it is safe to ID this as an American as well, even though we cannot see the head to be completely confident. The female-type bird behind the male in the center also is clearly very similar to our female American Wigeon in front, center. She shares the front bird’s gray head and we can even see a hint of a dark shadow around the eye. I think this is also enough to ID this as another female American Wigeon.
Now all that’s left is the odd-man out, so to speak. The answer breakdown below gives us the list of the guesses for this bird. All were very good guesses and seemed to be based mainly on the head pattern that is visible. Falcated Duck was something that I hadn’t thought of and considering the head visible it isn’t a bad fit. However, one would expect the green to extend down onto the cheek not to mention that the rump pattern does not match for this species. Green-winged Teal also matches quite well for the head pattern but the very distinct rump pattern of this species isn’t present here. Also, Green-winged Teals are noticeably smaller than wigeons. Overall what we can see of the body, gray back, wigeon rump, are quite good for Eurasian Wigeon. Plus the rufous head clearly suggests that species. However, while apparently some “full-blooded” Eurasians have a small green ear patch none should have such a broad area of green, not to mention green on the nape. In fact if this were a black and white photo the pattern of the head would suggest American Wigeon. This pattern is quite common among hybrids between the two wigeon species. I took this picture of an AMERICAN X EURASIAN WIGEON hybrid with a group of AMERICAN WIGEONS at Westmoreland Park in Portland, OR on February 9, 2008. Another photo of the hybrid and a female Eurasian Wigeon taken at the same park is also posted for comparison.
In the end I had 13 responses with only two correct answers. This did seem to trip up quite a few people but I hope it was still fun. I really particularly enjoyed the elaborated responses that I received this week (and in general.) I really like hearing how others came to the conclusions that they did. Thanks to everyone and Good Luck!
ANSWER:
EURASIAN WIGEON X AMERICAN WIGEON – AMERICAN WIGEON
Breakdown for non-American Wigeon answers:
Eurasian Wigeon – 6
Green-winged Teal – 3
Eurasian Wigeon x American Wigeon – 2
Falcated Duck – 1
Congratulations to:
Mike & MerryLynn Denny
Tom Crabtree