GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
tags: Male Hooded Merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Male Hooded Merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Rick Wright.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
The challenge of this mystery bird is less to diagnose its identity than to figure out how you identified this fine male Hooded Merganser. The responses from readers point to two very different modes of identification. The first mode is that of identification in the strict sense: checking the visible characters in the image against those signaled in the field guides. This method often works, and it is the approach the vast majority of birders take when confronted with an unfamiliar bird (or an unfamiliar angle).
The second method is more interesting and more challenging. Experienced birders will not have "identified" this bird, but rather recognized it, drawing on preparation and experience to riffle through a vast mental file of images to find the match. Once you've taken time to learn your birds, you don't need to "identify" them: you know what they look like, and even an unfamiliar view such as this one presents the bird in a way that it is unmistakable.
I'm often asked how to take "the next step" in birding. This is it: learn the book, then learn the bird. You will impress yourself with the depth of your knowledge -- and the ease with which so many "mysteries" unravel
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Comments
Hooded Merganser.
The chestnut flanks and the big ole white patch on the head tell that tale.
Posted by: Nate | December 1, 2008 10:49 AM
Yeah; Hooded Merganser is what I ended up with, too. I started off wondering "Harlequin Duck?", but couldn't make that bird match what I was seeing in the picture. But some flipping through Sibley left me with the adult male Hooded Merganser matching the head, and then the chestnut and the white streaks on the wings sealed the deal.
Posted by: John Callender | December 1, 2008 11:38 AM
Definitely a "Hoodie".
Posted by: Patrick | December 1, 2008 7:05 PM
A Hooded Merganser it is. Those white and black tertials and chestnut flanks couldn't be mistaken for anything else.
Posted by: JohnB | December 1, 2008 9:45 PM