Common Pochard

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Common Pochard, Aythya ferina (Hiroshima, Japan).

Image: Bardiac [larger].

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I knew that Japanese tanuki resembled racoons, but I had no idea that Japanese ducks were such dead ringers for racoons as well.

This photo reminds me of the time I used to live beside Brabrand Lake in Eastern Jutland. We had babies and I would always put a pair of binoculars under the pram when we were out so that I could do a bit of very amateurish birdspotting. It was fun identifying the less common ducks amongst the flocks of mallards - especially for an ignorant theoretical astrophysicist like me, with no previous interest in all that biology'n'nature stuff.

bardiac, no, no, you did fine on the bird ID. i made yet another one of my amusing typographical errors where i forgot to change the code to your pochard pic, so instead, a picture of bob levy's raccoon popped up. alas, that's what happens when you trust a one-armed blogger to post an image for all to enjoy.