I found this scaup yesterday while participating in the Harlingen CBC, a count that has never had an identified Greater Scaup in it's history so I am going to be conservative and call this a possible Greater Scaup. The bird was among about 250 Lesser Scaup on the lake in Dixieland Park. I believe it has following characteristics that distinguish female Greater from Lesser Scaup: black nail is large, shape of bill is more spatulate, the bill is larger proportionally to it's head than on Lesser's, and the forehead is not as steep as on Lesser's. Since the bird had just come up from a dive and it's head is wet, I don't think the head shape is helpful in distinguishing the species. Note: the only thing I did to these photos was crop them to enlarge the duck and not other editing. Photos can be enlarged for closer viewing by double-clicking on them. SeEtta
0 comments:
Post a Comment