Dear all,
I've been trawling through my videos and have found a sequence from August 2002 taken at Stanford Reservoir on the Northants/Leics border of an apparent dark headed variant of Ruddy Duck, three videograbs of which I've included below. This bird appears unringed in my video and kept company with 100 Ruddy Ducks and the Wite-Headed Duck which was my reason for going in the first place.
I've never seen such a Ruddy Duck in 20 years of birding and wonder if anyone else has - although I am aware that such variants do exist. Is it a Ruddy Duck? According to 'Wildfowl ' by Madge and Burn, there is a dark headed (sub)species of Ruddy Duck called Peruvian Ruddy Duck which would mean this bird is an escape from captivity (if you can get an 'escaped' Ruddy Duck if you see what I mean?). The absence of a blue bill may be significant, but perhaps having a dark head means the bill is dark too? Also, is it my imagination, or does the head shape seem not quite right for Ruddy Duck - or is it merely optical illusion due to the atypical head colour?
So two questions are in my mind, both of which I can't answer with any certainty:
Is this a 'normal' Ruddy Duck with a black head or Peruvian Ruddy Duck?
How unusual are Ruddy Ducks with black heads in the UK and in America?
Quite a conundrum isn't it? If anyone can help or has seen anything similar in the UK or otherwise, I'd be interested to hear from you.
Regards,
Lancey
I've been trawling through my videos and have found a sequence from August 2002 taken at Stanford Reservoir on the Northants/Leics border of an apparent dark headed variant of Ruddy Duck, three videograbs of which I've included below. This bird appears unringed in my video and kept company with 100 Ruddy Ducks and the Wite-Headed Duck which was my reason for going in the first place.
I've never seen such a Ruddy Duck in 20 years of birding and wonder if anyone else has - although I am aware that such variants do exist. Is it a Ruddy Duck? According to 'Wildfowl ' by Madge and Burn, there is a dark headed (sub)species of Ruddy Duck called Peruvian Ruddy Duck which would mean this bird is an escape from captivity (if you can get an 'escaped' Ruddy Duck if you see what I mean?). The absence of a blue bill may be significant, but perhaps having a dark head means the bill is dark too? Also, is it my imagination, or does the head shape seem not quite right for Ruddy Duck - or is it merely optical illusion due to the atypical head colour?
So two questions are in my mind, both of which I can't answer with any certainty:
Is this a 'normal' Ruddy Duck with a black head or Peruvian Ruddy Duck?
How unusual are Ruddy Ducks with black heads in the UK and in America?
Quite a conundrum isn't it? If anyone can help or has seen anything similar in the UK or otherwise, I'd be interested to hear from you.
Regards,
Lancey