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Duck ID, NE Germany1st week Oct 2020 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Andy Hurley
- Start date
Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
Eurasian Teal? The long neck suggests something has alarmed it, perhaps a predator neaby.
BobbitWorm45
Well-known member
That underwing looks like Teal
lou salomon
the birdonist
agree on eurasian teal. white tail sides.
Alexander Stöhr
Well-known member
Hard picture, but I think its 1cy Garganey:
-head shape and long, just discernable spatulate bill is better for this than for Teal.
-Difficult to asses because of underexposed picture: but when brightened I see a head pattern that is good for 1 cy Garganey. Some espacially 1cy lacks the pale round spot near the base of the bill,and this seems one example for this.
-this bird lacks a pale (orange, flesh) base to the bill
-worn of tertials seems to show just the contrasting whitish edges typical for Garganey.
-on first sight, this bird seems to have the white stripe under the tail that is virtually diagnostic for Teal, but its weak and unusual shaped for Teal.
-when brightened, I see the right warm buffish brwon colour in the pale parts of the head for 1 cy Garganey. I know this isnt a field mark, but if I had to paint an 100% IDbook-Garganey for a plate, it would have this colour. And when I see a Dabbling Duck swimming at a late summer/autumn pond and see this colour, I am quite certain, I have found a Garganey, when just glimpsing this colour through vegetation.
I know, all single points are within variation for Teal, but all taken together produce a jizz that says (not scream) Garganey to me.
-head shape and long, just discernable spatulate bill is better for this than for Teal.
-Difficult to asses because of underexposed picture: but when brightened I see a head pattern that is good for 1 cy Garganey. Some espacially 1cy lacks the pale round spot near the base of the bill,and this seems one example for this.
-this bird lacks a pale (orange, flesh) base to the bill
-worn of tertials seems to show just the contrasting whitish edges typical for Garganey.
-on first sight, this bird seems to have the white stripe under the tail that is virtually diagnostic for Teal, but its weak and unusual shaped for Teal.
-when brightened, I see the right warm buffish brwon colour in the pale parts of the head for 1 cy Garganey. I know this isnt a field mark, but if I had to paint an 100% IDbook-Garganey for a plate, it would have this colour. And when I see a Dabbling Duck swimming at a late summer/autumn pond and see this colour, I am quite certain, I have found a Garganey, when just glimpsing this colour through vegetation.
I know, all single points are within variation for Teal, but all taken together produce a jizz that says (not scream) Garganey to me.
Alexander Stöhr
Well-known member
Just read the answer of Lou (wasnt there, when I wrote my comment), and as I have learned much from his knowledge I checked my answer, and did a quick google search, as I thought the white "tail stripe" of the OP bird is unusual shaped for Teal, but better for those Garganey ghosting this pattern=pretending to have one. Please look here: https://bucksbirdclub.co.uk/Pictures/Garganey.htm
Deb Burhinus
Used to be well known! 😎
I wonder if it was the photographer - one minute on the water the next in the grass?! (agree with ET btw)
Joern Lehmhus
Well-known member
I think it is Eurasian Teal,
there should be clearer white borders to the speculum even in a first year Garganey;
and at this angle the iridescent part of the speculum seems violet/blue , something I have seen several times in teal but never in garganey.
additionally part of the speculum seems to be non iridescent black which would also be a teal feature
there should be clearer white borders to the speculum even in a first year Garganey;
and at this angle the iridescent part of the speculum seems violet/blue , something I have seen several times in teal but never in garganey.
additionally part of the speculum seems to be non iridescent black which would also be a teal feature
SteveClifton
Well-known member
Agree, also the throat should be much more contrastingly white on Garganey, even despite the less than favourable lighting.
The broad creamy white leading edge to the speculum can also just be seen on the right wing in pic 4.
Alexander Stöhr
Well-known member
Thank you Joern and Steve for mentioning the wing pattern. When I saw these pictures, I considered these not good to judge pattern and iriscedent colours. But you are right, after reading your comments, I looked at these pictures again and see a wing that is better for Teal. Thanks for that.
In quest to improve my own really bad pictures, and having more spare time the next days, I tried to look more closely at image editing programms and play with them. And I considered this dark underexposed picture a good example for me to play wit the "brighten up" and "contrast-level" buttons and learn for myself. For this post, I duplicated a result here, just brightend up and added slight contrast/sharpening in order to achieve a better, more neutral look at this duck. Appearantly not a good idea, see the result here:
a contrasting duck with a contrasting head pattern, with a pale loral area better for Gargeney, as was appearent warm buffish-orange colours so good for 1 cy Garganey (when taken image altering into account, I thought).
And while I agree with you Steve, that most adult female and many 1 cy Gargeney have a pale, many times even whitish throat, I have seen some 1 cy Garganeys that lack this feature (and my picture altering produced a pale throat, but this seems further down than the real thing)
I promise not to do this again and leave altering pictures to smarter people.
I hope the OP doesnt mind. If so, I will delete it ASAP.
And more: hoping to learn I hoping for more comments regarding shape and position of the white horizontal stripe near the tail and the bill-shape.
In quest to improve my own really bad pictures, and having more spare time the next days, I tried to look more closely at image editing programms and play with them. And I considered this dark underexposed picture a good example for me to play wit the "brighten up" and "contrast-level" buttons and learn for myself. For this post, I duplicated a result here, just brightend up and added slight contrast/sharpening in order to achieve a better, more neutral look at this duck. Appearantly not a good idea, see the result here:
a contrasting duck with a contrasting head pattern, with a pale loral area better for Gargeney, as was appearent warm buffish-orange colours so good for 1 cy Garganey (when taken image altering into account, I thought).
And while I agree with you Steve, that most adult female and many 1 cy Gargeney have a pale, many times even whitish throat, I have seen some 1 cy Garganeys that lack this feature (and my picture altering produced a pale throat, but this seems further down than the real thing)
I promise not to do this again and leave altering pictures to smarter people.
I hope the OP doesnt mind. If so, I will delete it ASAP.
And more: hoping to learn I hoping for more comments regarding shape and position of the white horizontal stripe near the tail and the bill-shape.
Attachments
...and the next back on the water.
No, we were in an observation platform and try and avoid such behaviour. This is at extreme range of a 500 mm lense. It was one of several White tailed Eagles that are in the area. 1 Adult and 2 1st years, going by tail pattern. There is a road leading to the hide, so others might have been on on it. 2 cyclists, also birders of some exp, were cycling to the hide. Curiously, cyclists very rarely disturb resting ducks ans geese, of which there were plently.
Thanks for doing it Alexander! I'm not so good at such things myself, so I left it as taken and only cropped. I don't like the auto improve button my software has.
Deb Burhinus
Used to be well known! 😎
Strange you should have this reaction to an innocuous comment. Where were WTE mentioned on this thread? I thought we were talking about a very common duck on pond or river! It wasn’t a criticism or related to anything in particular , ducks get spooked regularly by people or dogs. It’s still a teal though.
Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
Can only say - if there were White-tailed Eagles about, I'd not be bothering about some poxy little duck in the distance 3
Deb Burhinus
Used to be well known! 😎
Can only say - if there were White-tailed Eagles about, I'd not be bothering about some poxy little duck in the distance 3
:king:
Thanks very much for all contributors to the thread. I wondered about the elongated neck, which put me off a positive I.D. Not knowing about the cause, my wife took this photo, while I was scoping geese to the left as I saw a solitary Bean Goose at the edge of a flock of Greylag Geese. We saw White tailed Eagles nearly every day of this trip and a group of 3 flew over , scattering everything.
Once again, thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread.
Once again, thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread.
Can only say - if there were White-tailed Eagles about, I'd not be bothering about some poxy little duck in the distance 3
There are plenty of these in N and NE Germany and are by no means a rare occurence. We see them regularly. The duck, that didn't appear to have the pox, looked very long-necked. It was something interesting to the photographer, especially when the neck length seemed longer than the body length.
Apart from that, each to his or her own.
May be you should do you thinking with more depth. It seemed to me that you were acusing me of scaring the duck in question. This, without being present at the time. The WTE were not mentioned, because I hadn't connected the reason it had a long neck, as I was scoping geese at the time it was taken.
