madcat

What would it be ? Thanks for your help in advance.

19/1/2014 San Tin

3-001.jpg (130.06 KB)

21/01/2014 12:10

madcat

2 more photos:

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21/01/2014 12:11

1-001.jpg (141.59 KB)

21/01/2014 12:11

星魚

Tufted Duck,,,,,?

ajohn

I'm surprised there haven't been more comments about this bird, but maybe others have been like me with the photos. I've come back to this post a few times and I am still not entirely sure about the species. But I think it is worth trying to determine the ID of this bird, so here goes...

It is clearly a female Aythya diving duck, of which there are a few species in HK. Common Pochard can be most easily ruled out, on a number of factors.

The relatively square head initially seems to suggest Tufted Duck, but the dark eye should rule that species out. I also think the bill is too dark. I wonder whether the bird has been diving, which sometimes affects the apparent head shape. Greater Scaup also doesn't fit in terms of eye colour and bill pattern (and the head is too dull for a typical Scaup anyway).

That leaves Baer's Pochard and Ferruginous Duck. These two species can be fairly similar and I don't have a huge amount of experience with either. For me the dark flanks would favour Ferruginous over Baer's. I also would expect Baer's to typically look deeper-billed (especially at the base), and I think the bill pattern fits Ferruginous better than Baer's - not as dark as Baer's, with a black tip similar to Tufted. And the head pattern also seems better for Ferruginous - I would expect Baer's to be darker-headed and less likely to show the paler pattern seen on this bird.

So overall I think that this bird is a female Ferruginous Duck. I would welcome any other comments though, especially from anyone with more experience with these species.

It's a very good record (especially on a fish pond!), congratulations.

ddavid

I'd agree that this is female Ferruginous Duck. Compare the facial pattern of the San Tin bird with the following bird taken in Oman by Hanne & Jens Eriksen:



David

[ Last edited by ddavid at 26/01/2014 19:18 ]

Jonathmartinez

I've also opened this post several time before saturday without fixing any ID on it, and I have to said that the first thing I wanted to do back home was to open it again as the bird I saw during the race was very similar.
Fortunatly Huang Kai Chi of our team managed to take a good picture of the bird and it is definitly the same one, at least the very same plumage.
The contrasting crown is really particular and agree that it fit better female Ferruginous rather than Baer's, despite this is how I ID it firstly.
The bill shape and the lack of white on lower flank especially rule out Baer's...
Here another link showing a female FP showing well the darker crown : http://www.netfugl.dk/pictures.p ... mp;picture_id=48274

And here the picture of Huang Kai Chi from saturday

FerruginousDuckFemaleIMG_8660HKMaiPo20140125.jpg (98.05 KB)

26/01/2014 20:45

The question is would it have made a better bird of the day?

EricB

Sure this bird has many features consistent with a Fudge Duck but as you know Aythya ducks are a real headache because of hybridisation.Without better images of the bill,upper and under wing in flight, birds like this one  remain unfortunately unidentifiable.
From here the head shape on the first image looks a bit odd for a pure Ferruginous(accepting that photos can be deceptive).
E

[ Last edited by EricB at 2/02/2014 07:02 ]