Timber point east marina 19 April Joe Giunta and I (Sy Schiff) found the 2 Ruffs together this morning (thanks Andrew for getting the word out after being alerted). The obvious male is molting into breeding plumage. Today there is much more black than in photos posted earlier. In addition, the bird is developing a ruff. This was quite evident when approached by the second bird. At that point, it put on a full display posture, bending down, fluffing up its feathers and showing ear flaps The barring was exceptionally noticeable and some reddish feathering was displayed in the back as the feathers went up. The breast ruff is not yet fully developed. None of this showed when the bird was feeding.
The second bird does not appear to be a juvenile. It displays barred tertials, I believe a sign of maturity. . Could not find it much smaller than the male. Best judgment is a female, not yet in full breeding plumage I could not find any reference in the literature I have that the "breeding display" is is an aggression posture. So, both Joe and I find this extremely interesting as to how it reacted to an approaching "female". I have lots of very poor distant photos, but lucked out on one picture of the display. Sy -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES 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://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
