Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bloom-beacon!mintaka!oliveb!oliven!mjm
From: mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: What is this bird??
Message-ID: <48335@oliveb.olivetti.com>
Date: 23 Sep 89 00:04:35 GMT
References: <3791@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <48214@oliveb.olivetti.com> <3215@nmtsun.nmt.edu>
Sender: news@oliveb.olivetti.com
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In article <3215@nmtsun.nmt.edu>, john@nmtsun.nmt.edu (John Shipman) writes:
 > 
 > In the late 70's I photographed a duck at the Palo Alto Duck
 > Pond that was probably an American x Eurasian Wigeon,
 > according to local expert Ted Chandik.  The head was like
 > EW, rufous with a yellow crown stripe, while the body was
 > like AW, with rusty flanks.

	I saw a duck at Arrowhead Marsh which I thought was a hybrid
between American and Eurasian Wigeon. It had the green eye patch like
an American Wigeon with a grayish crown, but the head below the eye
patch was reddish brown and it had a yellow forehead stripe.

	I remember seeing three Eurasian Wigeons on Adobe Creek, next
to Charleston Slough, that ranged nicely from extreme juvenal plumage
to near-adult. The youngest one had a very indistinct forehead stripe
with a darker brown head color. The sides were uniformly colored a
reddish brown. At this point the back was still brown. The near-adult
bird was colored exactly like an adult except for a few spots of rust
on the upper flanks. The bird that was in-between was also like an
adult except for more rust color on the sides and the back was still
blotchy with some brown feathers. These three birds, all seen on the
same day, at the same place, within about an hour's time, were an
excellent demonstration of the juvenile molt sequence.

Mike