Any help with ID please? (1 Viewer)

[tele1962]

Gosforth Park NE England today. I could not seem to find these small ducks in my book. Any help would be much appreciated.

Sorry for the poor pictures.

 

[Julie50]

They are not ducks - they are little grebes They all look like males to me.

 

[tele1962]

They are not ducks - they are little grebes They all look like males to me.

Thank you so much Julie.

 

[ChrisMc1957]

Yes agreed, Little Grebes all of them

 

[tele1962]

Yes agreed, Little Grebes all of them

Thanks Chris

 

[tele1962]

I think what also threw me was in my books it said yellowish spot at the base of the bill but it looks very white to me??

 

[ChrisMc1957]

Its not easy to get ID's exact, but these are definitely Little Grebes, here is a photo (first photo) of one I took a while ago for ID purposes, you can see it is definitely white on the bill, to be honest, I have seen lots of these little birds and never seen one with yellow on their beak? But now you mention it I am going to look through more LG photos I have taken and see if there are any with yellow dots on their beaks


EDIT, all the male photos I have, have the white at the base of their beaks, the only female see below (last image) could possibly be classed as having a Yellow base to her beak, so I guess that answers the question then

 

[Julie50]

There also isn’t anything else they could be

 

[johnallcock]

Adult male and female Little Grebes look the same, I don't think it's possible to separate the sexes on appearance.

EDIT, all the male photos I have, have the white at the base of their beaks, the only female see below (last image) could possibly be classed as having a Yellow base to her beak, so I guess that answers the question then

The bird you're referring to in the last image is in non-breeding plumage (actually, I think it may be juvenile but not 100% sure).

 

[ChrisMc1957]

I think what also threw me was in my books it said yellowish spot at the base of the bill but it looks very white to me??

Adult male and female Little Grebes look the same, I don't think it's possible to separate the sexes on appearance.



The bird you're referring to in the last image is in non-breeding plumage (actually, I think it may be juvenile but not 100% sure).

I did consider it may be a juvenile, but couldn't be sure, thanks for the clarification

 

[Julie50]

John is correct. I am mistaken on the male vs female identification. You learn something new every day - as the saying goes

Those I have been identifying as female are non-breeding birds!