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Bird Photos: Rarities: Harlequin Duck in Stockton
This female Harlequin Duck was first seen on Sunday,
November 20, 2005 by a morning field trip group from the Central
Valley Birding Symposium at the Stockton Sewage Treatment Ponds.
That evening, the identity of the duck was called into question
after some digital images were processed and uploaded
to the web. The images showed a duck with a large bill, more
scoter-like to several people who had not seen the bird. Subsequent
photos and comments were posted to the web that showed a duck
that looked more like a Harlequin; Richard
Hall's page; Don
Roberson's page. I was able to visit the ponds on 11/22 with
Cynthia Tuthill, Jim Orr, and their friend, Piky, from India.
Cynthia first spotted the bird with Jim calling it our right after
her. It was in the narrow channel to the north of the westernmost
pond, in good light shining over my shoulder. Seeing it in person,
it was an obvious female Harlequin Duck, I don't think that this
bird, when seen in person, is controversial at all.
Subsequent photos posted
by Laura Look, indicate the possibility that this bird might,
in fact, be a juvenile male molting into adult plumage. A row
of white feathers on the breast flanks appear to be forming the
white bar that shows in this area on an adult male. The last reported
sighting on the Central Valley Birds list was in early December.
We may not see what sex this bird will develop into.
This image shows the bird's
body in more of a profile and provides a look at the bill
from above. The whitish belly is supposed to be a good mark
that points to Harlequin and not to the two scoters. I have
not seen female scoter bellies, so I don't have the experience
to back this up. Someone mentioned that the small white
spot above the front of the eye was a mark in favor of Harlequin.
That mark is obvious in this shot.
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A very good fieldmark is
the relative size to other known species, in this case an
American Coot. The two scoter possibilities would be much
larger than the coot.
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But one should be careful
when judging size from telephoto images. Sometimes foreground
birds can appear smaller than birds further in the background,
a counter-intuitive illusion. So, I shot this image with
the birds in reverse position to see if the size comparison
held up. And, it does, the duck appears equal to, or slightly
smaller than, the coot.
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For good measure, here's
an adult female photographed in June on breeding grounds
near Nome, Alaska. I don't know if the amount of white in
the facial pattern is significant for age.
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One more shot of Harlequin
Ducks, from Monterey's Fisherman's Wharf area, where a small
number of Harlequin Ducks have wintered for many years,
recently. I think this was from the winter sometime between
2000 and 2003. This may have been a high count for the species
in recent years in this location. There may have been one
more male present and the appearance of the female was unique.
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And to show how different
a female White-winged Scoter appears, this is a bird that
was seen in Shoreline Lake, Mountain View, CA. I don't have
the date, but it was during the late winter in the early
90's. The white spot behind the eye is considerably larger
and the white area at the base of the bill is less bright.
The size of the bill and the sloping quality of the forehead
is also very different in comparison to the Harlequin.
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All images on this page are copyrighted by Les Chibana.
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