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Common pochard or Canvasback - Japan (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter misikuru
- Start date
Jeff Hopkins
Just another...observer
Look good for Pochards. Bills on Canvasbacks are even longer, and the males are white, not grey.
It's definitely not a Canvasback.
But surely the strange bill of the front bird is mud or a photo artefact? Notice that the bird in the background has suddenly developed two white marks on its face between the first and second photos - with the vertical white stripe, I almost thought Little Grebe.
However, the front bird looks odd in other ways. In the second photo, it seems to have developed a yellow eye, or is it just the nictitating membrane? And the red on the head doesn't seem to come far enough down the neck. And the tail position in both photos seems very odd for a Pochard.
Maybe some kind of hybrid.
Although I think Pochard x Spoon-billed Sandpiper is genetically unlikely. Can they hybridise with Shovelers (bill if not mud; yellow eye)?
Reflection from water drops or wet feathers? Don't see anything even vaguely little-grebe-ish.
Not developed. Just not visible in pic 1. Angle, posture, light, etc. All normal.
Stretching neck to preen, so things aren't in field-guide order.
Bird in non-field-guide posture, as birds often are.
Another condescending post by Butty 🙄
I see Pochards and Little Grebe perhaps 100 days a year (winter residents and the Grebe breed nearby).
And it was Butty who said the bill was weird; hence why I looked more closely.
Butty: I don't understand why you felt the need to respond aggressively when I wasn't even disagreeing with your earlier post.
And it was Butty who said the bill was weird; hence why I looked more closely.
See photos below. On a glance, that's what I thought. (Japanese Little Grebes have yellow eyes, not red.)
Yellow eye is also visible in Picture 1.
Not preening in Picture 1. Anyway, the red on the head clearly comes down less far on the front bird than the rear bird; I accept that this may be just 'a moulting thing'. And I've looked through my last three years' photos of Pochard, and I can't find that tail position - the more I look at it, the more strange it appears for Pochard (both shape and position). But of course, it could be 'one of those things'.
Butty: I don't understand why you felt the need to respond aggressively when I wasn't even disagreeing with your earlier post.
Probably is: stretching its head high in order to be able to dig bill into chest-feathers as high up as possible - normal preening action.
Thanks for your grebe explanation - I see your point.
petemorris
Well-known member
They are Common Pochards, which is also the expected species.
noujun
Active member
Hello misikuru,
That's an intriguing photo you've shared, especially the bird in the background. It doesn't quite look like a Canvasback to me, but the bill does seem larger than what I'd typically expect for a Common Pochard. I did consider the possibility of it being a Canvasback in eclipse plumage, but I'm leaning more towards it being a Pochard. It's also interesting to note that you, being a foreigner, took this photo in Japan
That's an intriguing photo you've shared, especially the bird in the background. It doesn't quite look like a Canvasback to me, but the bill does seem larger than what I'd typically expect for a Common Pochard. I did consider the possibility of it being a Canvasback in eclipse plumage, but I'm leaning more towards it being a Pochard. It's also interesting to note that you, being a foreigner, took this photo in Japan
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