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From: dmark@joey.cs.buffalo.edu (David Mark)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: What is this bird??
Message-ID: <10774@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 23 Sep 89 14:19:28 GMT
References: <3791@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <48214@oliveb.olivetti.com> <3192@nmtsun.nmt.edu> <48269@oliveb.olivetti.com>
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In article <48269@oliveb.olivetti.com> mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser) writes:
>
>	Speaking of hybrids, I've seen a couple of interesting ones
>in recent years. A few years ago I was at the Palo Alto Baylands around
>the beginning of the year and saw what I'm sure was a Northern Shoveler
>x Blue-Winged Teal hybrid. The bird had a bright, distinct white crescent
>in front of the eye (typical of BWT). 

            [remainder of excellent description deleted]

am looking at a picture of the New Zealand race of the Australalian
Shoveler, Anas rhynchotis variegata, and except perhaps for the crown, your
description seems to fit it perfectly.  An escaped New Zealand Shoveller
in the Bay area would be very unlikely, but so would be a hybrid.  But then
again, hybrids are much more common in captivity, so maybe it was an
escaped hybrid...

David Mark
dmark@cs.buffalo.edu