A friend took this at Arundel (1 Viewer)

[DavidC]

Hi

I have been asked to ID this bird.

It is a captive bird and when i first looked at it I though red breasted merganser.

Someone has thrown hooded merganser which i must admit did not consider.

Could just do with a few second opinions.

Regards

Dave

 

[PYRTLE]

Hooded Merganser

 

[Jonno52]

Yes, female Hooded Merganser.

 

[Nutcracker]

In pic 2, looks a rather well-demarcated pale cheek for Hooded? Given that it's a zoo bird (so could very easily be hybrid origin), might it have some Smew blood in its ancestry? Something like (Hooded x Hooded) x (Smew x Hooded)?

 

[DavidC]

Thanks gents.

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

In pic 2, looks a rather well-demarcated pale cheek for Hooded? Given that it's a zoo bird (so could very easily be hybrid origin), might it have some Smew blood in its ancestry? Something like (Hooded x Hooded) x (Smew x Hooded)?

Hooded merganser females have a two-toned head pattern with slightly different cheek coloration that changes with the angle of the light

Both photos show the same bird (look at the plastic rings shape with a little tooth standing out at the left side)

So I think that is just two extremes of how the head pattern can look with different angles of light.
I don´t think any hybridsation event is needed here for explanation.

Furthermore I do not know if hybrids smew x hooded are fertile...