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Whistling Duck ID help, please (UK, but escape bird) (1 Viewer)

Lissagriffin

Active member
I was surprised to see a Whistling Duck fly in to my local patch reservoir in Leicestershire this morning with some Grey Lag Geese. Obviously an escape bird from somewhere, but I'd still like to ID it. My first thought was Fulvous Whistling Duck, which I'd seen in Florida, but later realised I hadn't ruled out the very similar Wandering Whistling Duck. Not sure whether the photos are good enough to nail it, but they're the best I have.
 

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In flight, there was no white on the wings, which Black-bellied would show at any age I think. It looks rather like it's one of Fulvous, Wandering, or Lesser (which I hadn't considered originally), but the ID criteria seem to be elusive. Some better images at different angles would have helped, I'm sure. Thanks for the thoughts so far.
 
In flight, there was no white on the wings, which Black-bellied would show at any age I think. It looks rather like it's one of Fulvous, Wandering, or Lesser (which I hadn't considered originally), but the ID criteria seem to be elusive. Some better images at different angles would have helped, I'm sure. Thanks for the thoughts so far.
Well of those, perhaps Fulvous is the best candidate. Afaik, wandering never has a pale bill. Fulvous does have some flank/rear end marking as per the second photo. The dark rear head stripe seems extreme but it would be for lesser too I think. I note there's a 2012 BF thread which reports Fulvous from Rutland Water. Obviously not going to be the same bird, but perhaps the same population ?
 
As the rear flanks seem black , it is probably some kind of hybrid involving blackbellied whistling duck.

i do not know yet how variable that hybrid is, but here is another fulvous x blackbellied- which admittedly doesn´t have much black at the rear flanks , but has all dark primaries and secondaries :
 
As the rear flanks seem black , it is probably some kind of hybrid involving blackbellied whistling duck.

i do not know yet how variable that hybrid is, but here is another fulvous x blackbellied- which admittedly doesn´t have much black at the rear flanks , but has all dark primaries and secondaries :
I think that really looks like it.
 
Thanks for all this, guys. I was going to say before the hybrid theories were advanced that Lesser was surely ruled out on size, the bird in question being almost as large-bodied as the Mallard it was associating with. But I agree, the BBWD x FWD hypothesis looks pretty good.
 

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