The male King Eider was present again today at Point Lookout near the second westernmost jetty. Though the temperatures were mild, the waters were pretty choppy, making spotting challenging at times. So I considered myself lucky to get some passable video of the bird.
When reviewing my footage, I noted an interesting eider-like bird. I suspect it was an immature common eider, as it had a black cap and some white on the back. But its bill seemed on the small side (particularly compared to a nearby eider), in some frames it seemed to have a bit of a yellow to orangish hue, and it had an “uncommon” smile-like facial pattern. I wondered if it might be a common-king hybrid. I linked a photo and video of the bird, as well as a video of the king eider to my ebird post: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S42101440 Wishing you good birds, Peter -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
