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Project Noah Nature School
Aythya affinis
Medium duck like water bird with black and white feathers. Predominant black/green head area; white mid body feather and black/brown tail area. L:ight blue beak/bill.
Located in an urban fresh water retention pond located in apartment complex.
Noticed these migratory ducks in a pond next to my apartment. Only at the pond for a few hours one evening. Haven't seen since.
Also look at Ring-necked Duck. They look very similar to Scaup, but have some bands on the beak. If it is a Scaup though, you tell the difference between head shape (domed vs round). Then with males the amount of black on the tip of the bill is different, and on females the white cheek patch is more prominent on Greater Scaup. But once you upload it we should be able to tell!
@AshleyT I have new scaup flock spotting. These guys have a banded beak. Mentioned in both greater and lesser. What do you think? I'll post it as soon.
Correct. And when you compare it to photos of the Greater Scaup, yours have domed heads. And if you can't tell, it's always better to err on the side of caution and go with Lesser Scaup, they are much more common than Greater Scaup :)
I was looking for a bit more pointed area on the head. Since I have not seen either I had thought that from descriptions that the head area needed to be more "pointed or domed" for the lesser?
Spotted on Jan 12, 2014
Submitted on Jan 12, 2014
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