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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Philip Round" data-source="post: 1714949" data-attributes="member: 78492">I'd like to seek the opinions of experienced Aythya duck watchers on these apparent Tufted Ducks, photographed at Bung Boraphet, Nakhon Sawan province, Central Thailand, in early January 2010.    I am a bit troubled and puzzed by the seemingly smoothly rounded head of the male (centre), while at least two of the female-plumaged birds also seem to lack obvious tufts. (Will Duckworth, working in Laos, was the first to bring this up in the context of the few seemingly "untufted" Tufted Ducks he has seen there.) So how unusual is this? Can hybrid status can be ruled out, since the male in the attached photograph has a typically Tufted Duck-like prominent black distal portion of the bill? Is there any geographical variation in tuftedness across the wide range of this species?  (Neither Will nor I can remember seeing birds that completely lacked tufts among those we used to look at in UK, though you will appreciate that  it is now 20-30 years since either of us used to regularly look at Tufted Ducks there.)The photograph is attached courtesy of Mr Wicha Narungsri.</blockquote>