First Tajikistan (eBird) record of Common Shelduck? (1 Viewer)

[PhilSteiner]

Hi all, I took these yesterday in southern Tajikistan. I'm 99.8% sure I'm right in calling this a Common Shelduck (dark head, flight feathers, back suspenders, and tail tip; hint of rufous breast band in one photo), but as it'd be the first Tajikistan record, I wanted to run it by this forum to make sure I'm not overlooking something else that would look like this.

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Wow Phil!
Congratulations for finding and documenting a national first!
Its a Common Shellduck by the unique pattern you described. And I agree with your hesitation: better wait for others with more experience from all birds of the world

 

[Rotherbirder]

Not much doubt really, a nice find! The characteristic piebald pattern and bowed wings are pretty much unmistakable.

RB

 

[dalat]

Congrats Phil!

 

[James Eaton]

Nice record, Phil - are previous records of the species in Tajikistan no longer considered acceptable? The species appears in the BirdLife Tajikistan bird list: BirdLife Data Zone, along with Tajikistan Birds website: The Checklist of the Birds of Tajikistan. Birds of Tajikistan.

James

 

[PhilSteiner]

Nice record, Phil - are previous records of the species in Tajikistan no longer considered acceptable? The species appears in the BirdLife Tajikistan bird list: BirdLife Data Zone, along with Tajikistan Birds website: The Checklist of the Birds of Tajikistan. Birds of Tajikistan.

James

I should have specified... first eBird record, which is of course a very incomplete database. Do you know if there's a place to access previous records, as opposed to simply the lists?

 

[James Eaton]

I should have specified... first eBird record, which is of course a very incomplete database. Do you know if there's a place to access previous records, as opposed to simply the lists?

Many countries (in Asia, at least), don't have an official database of records from a birding body - though there's often someone keen enough to keep a sort of unofficial list. It's worthing contacting OSME to find out if they have any recording-keeping contact, or the authors of Birds of Central Asia, as they would have got their data from somewhere.

James