This morning I stopped by Grondin Pond hoping to test my scaup ID skills, and instead spent most of my time looking at an bird associating with the ring-necked ducks. It was similar in size and shape to the Ring-necked ducks it was associating with. It's either a female or young male (I don't know how to separate the two, I need to look into that). It bill was what I first noticed, it's bluish, with a dark tip, but lacking the white ring around the tip of the bill and whitish feather patch at the base of the bill the nearby Ring-necks showed. The back was a dark brown, the sides a lighter brown then the back. The head was a uniform brown color, with a slight peak at the back of the crown. I didn't notice the head shape as being much different than the nearby ring-necked ducks.
From what I can tell, this bird seems a bit suggestive of a female Tufted Duck, but the sides don't seem quite right (a bit too pale?) and I'm not sure the head shape fits, but it was noticeably different than the nearby Ring-neck males and females. Could it be just a young male Ring-necked Duck, or a hybrid, or am I just seeing things and it's a perfectly normal Ring-necked duck. Poor pictures can be seen here:
I'd love any thoughts on the bird.
The bird was visible from the Woodview drive, on the left hand side of the pond, associating with about 6 other Ring-necked Ducks. Several Lesser Scaup and American Wigeon were also present in the back of the pond.
David Rankin
Biddeford
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