tags: Greater Scaup, Aythya marila, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Greater Scaup, Aythya marila, photographed at Oakland, California. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 22 December 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Another scaup to light my way to the fall! This bird's full nape continues without a break or notch to the high point of the crown, which is above or perhaps even slightly ahead of the eye; the forehead shows a subtle curve into a large, boat-shaped bill. Black covers the entire tip of the bill, reaching from the nail all the way out to the edge. Note, too, that the vermiculations visible on some of the back feathers are decidedly fine; compare that pattern to the rather coarse banding on the feathers of the back of our recent Lesser Scaup.
This is a Greater Scaup. But I don't know whether it's a male or a female: ideas?
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Comments
A Scaup?
Posted by: Greg Laden | October 12, 2008 11:05 AM
female Greater Scaup
Posted by: JohnB | October 12, 2008 12:22 PM
Can we wait until getting the answer to yesterday's bird before replying? Based on that discussion, this is obviously some sort of scaup.
According to the translation of the Kalevala (the Finnish folk epic), the world was created from a scaup's eggs. It laid its eggs on a girl's knee whilst she was floating about, but she twitched when the nest got too hot, and the eggs fell off and broke.
Posted by: Bob O'H | October 12, 2008 12:38 PM
I can say with some confidence that it is...a duck!
Afraid that I have not the foggiest idea of any more precise identification, though.
Posted by: MRL | October 12, 2008 2:58 PM
I can say with some confidence that it is...a duck!
Afraid that I have not the foggiest idea of any more precise identification, though.
Posted by: MRL | October 12, 2008 3:14 PM
Another scaup. Ummmm. If yesterday's was a lesser, this is a greater?
All I know is, she's wet.
Posted by: The Ridger | October 12, 2008 3:15 PM
Definitely, a female scaup. Probably a Greater Scaup,Aythya marila.
Posted by: Rick Quarton | October 12, 2008 3:57 PM