Did a family day at the London Wetland Centre today and thought I'd have a look at the Ferruginous Ducks considering the recent hybrid at the farmlands HERE.
Adult female Ferruginous Duck showing the black tipped bill with blue sub-terminal band that cuts down the side of the bill almost at a right angle
Adult female Ferruginous Duck showing very dark upperparts (with no scalloping), dark border to the undertail coverts (the femoral area/coverts), lack of contrast between breast and flanks and overall much more rich reddish colour tones than the presumed Ferruginous x Pochard at the farmlands below
The Beddington Bird. Compared to the adult female Ferruginous above this bird has a head profile more similar to Pochard, the blue bill band is obliquely angled, the dark on the bill tip is more extensive, the bird is overall more brownish, has grey scalloping on the upperparts, has contrast between flanks and breast and also lacks the dark border on the femoral coverts. It would have been useful to have found a first-winter Ferruginous Duck at the Wetland Centre to compare as this would have been even closer to the Beddington bird- presumably browner, with less well defined bill pattern but overall would resemble an adult female. More photos of the Beddington bird HERE.
Adult female and male Ferruginous Duck.
Also a few other interesting things in the LWC collection- displaying Hooded Mergansers
Comparison of sleeping adult male Lesser Scaup (above) and Greater Scaup (below)
Continuing this year's Manky Mallards theme HERE, these Indian Runners were entertaining
What is this? (it's Butterbur- cheers Steve!)
Had to show Jacob the famous Asian Short-clawed Otters- a good excuse to drag the family out while doing a bit of covert id research
Hybrid duck links:
2 comments:
Butterbur
Cheers Steve!
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