Everyone, Photos have been seen by several experts, and although it has not been exactly straightforward the concensus seems to be that the bird is not be a pure Tufted Duck.
If it is a hybrid, Bruce Mactavish and myself are leaning towards Tufted Duck X Lesser Scaup, a combo which would probably look a lot closer to an actual Tufted Duck than, say, a Tufted Duck X Greater Scaup hybrid. All this being said, more recently Bruce stated (I hope he doesn't mind) that "It is possible your bird could be an adult male [Tufted] that hasn't completely moulted out of eclipse plumage. The well-developed strudy tuft sort of suggests that." So we are currently in limbo-land on the identification of this bird. Maybe yes, maybe no (probably no) for Tufted Duck. Likely the scaup flock will hang around for a while. Sometimes they wander as far south as the parking lot at SE Hillman Marsh. Alan Wormington, Leamington ____________________________________________________________ 30-second trick for a flat belly This daily 30-second trick BOOSTS your body's #1 fat-burning hormone http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/50ef621013e8862107694st02duc _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
