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eider x shelduck (1 Viewer)

Joern Lehmhus

Well-known member
The following drawing from 1994 is a rough sketch of the eider x shelduck hybrid that has been hanging around on the island of Wangerooge already for 3 previous years.

legs are shorter than in shelduck, but I am not sure about their colour, most time the bird was feeding in shallow water.
Green Speculum, but the rustyred feathers at the end of the shelducks speculum near the body weree black here. Wing shape was intermediate. the bird was looking more plump than shelduck, but similar size.

A similar hybrid was at the Zoo of Basel. I saw pictures of that bird. the only difference to the wangerooge bird was that it had a white head, but with the same black markings as the wangerooge bird.

Is that bird male or female? That question was raised on wangerooge, eider being a species with distinctly different plumage in both sexes, and shelduck being not.

I am not sure if this is the right forum, but Michael Frankis asked for the drawing-here it is- and so I raised the above question again (the bird was named Rainer-Maria by local birders, as nobody could say its a he or a she)
 

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Thanks, Charles! Luckily , the bird was cooperative and stayed...a photo would have been nice and much faster, but I do not have the equipment for bird photography.

Alastair, the only "common" cross genus hybrids may be between Anser geese and Branta geese, especially greylag and Canada.
Having seen already about 30 Canada-greylag crosses, perhaps some more, and only one wild eider x shelduck (two such hybrids, if you count the photos I saw from Basel Zoo), I guess most of these hybrids, especially those from distantly related parent species are extremely rare.
 
Hi Alastair,

There's even one cross-family hybrid reported regularly (though not commonly): Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix - Tetraonidae) x Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus - Phasianidae)

Suspect that shows more than anything, that grouse and pheasants should really be lumped into one family.

Equally - is there any real justification for keeping Branta as a separate genus from Anser?

Michael
 
Hi Michael,

concerning Anser and Branta geese, the hybrids between them are also fully fertile ... makes me think even more that one genus would be o.k. with them.
 
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