Canvasback or just a Pochard Central Japan (1 Viewer)

This morning I came across this bird (photos one and two; photo three is an eclipse male and a female Common Pochard showing the regular bill pattern for comparison).

Although we have lots of Pochard here over the winter, this bird struck me as a little different. The first point is that it has a completely black bill, without the usually very clear grey/black divide of the Common Pochard. It seems to have quite a long neck. Then it was by itself, not with the other Pochards in a nearby pond which they like, but in a four metre by four metre concrete farmer's water tank where I have never seen a Pochard in the many years I have been going there (very occasionally, a Teal might be found there). Then it happily posed a couple of metres from me, rather than moving away as the other Pochards do.

It fits well with the female Canvasback in my photo book, and Brazil's Birds of East Asia says it is a 'rare but probably annual winter visitor' to this area. I wonder if it might be one?

MacNara said:

This morning I came across this bird (photos one and two; photo three is an eclipse male and a female Common Pochard showing the regular bill pattern for comparison).

Although we have lots of Pochard here over the winter, this bird struck me as a little different. The first point is that it has a completely black bill, without the usually very clear grey/black divide of the Common Pochard. It seems to have quite a long neck. Then it was by itself, not with the other Pochards in a nearby pond which they like, but in a four metre by four metre concrete farmer's water tank where I have never seen a Pochard in the many years I have been going there (very occasionally, a Teal might be found there). Then it happily posed a couple of metres from me, rather than moving away as the other Pochards do.

It fits well with the female Canvasback in my photo book, and Brazil's Birds of East Asia says it is a 'rare but probably annual winter visitor' to this area. I wonder if it might be one?

Click to expand...

Hi Mac,

It would be great to have a Canvasback in this part of Japan but I think this is just a Pochard. Canvasback has a really long long bill with a straighter culmen (concave in Pochard like this bird) and the back would probably look much paler. If the bird hadn't been a loner you'd have noticed its neck isn't really longer than the other Pochards and it would have given you the chance to assess the size too, Canvasback should be larger if you have them side by side.

Neil

Thanks, Neil. I guess you're right, but the bill colour is not a trick of the light, as you can see from the fact the the bird's head is seen from two different angles in the two photos, and since the bird was only a couple of metres away. I've never seen an all-black Pochard bill. Usually the bicolour bill is clear even from quite a way away.

I did have a look at a few photos on the internet, and while some Canvasbacks do indeed seem to have very long bills, others seem not so long. I thought my bird looked a lot like this and this, and I'm not sure that the culmen shape is quite so distinctive. In the second of these linked photos, the back colour doesn't look so different, and today in Nara the sky was very dark and overcast at the time I took the photo, so this will have affected the colour I think.

But at the same time, I expect you're right, and that the black colouration is 'just one of those things'.

Unfortunately, I can't get there tomorrow (well, maybe in the afternoon), and I don't think the bird would be in the same place anyway (a sterile tank). And Sunday, as well as the election there is the Nara Marathon, so roads are closed. But I'll have a look among the other Pochards anyway on Monday.

And, Neil, I read your interesting blog post about Wagtails, which prompted me to have a look through my photos of these birds. I found one or two which are interesting, and I'll post a thread right now. If you have time to comment, I'd be grateful.