[EBB Sightings] Lake Merritt goldeneyes

We had a nice walk around Lake Merritt in Oakland this morning.  We spent 
over a half hour just watching the goldeneye flock at the southern tip of 
the lake.  The flock is about 40-50 birds, about half BARROW's and half 
commons.  It provided an ideal opportunity to compare female Barrows's and 
common goldeneyes from relatively close.  We saw one additional male 
Barrow's goldeneye near the east end of the lake.

The highlight was the GOLDENEYE X HOODED MERGANSER HYBRID which appears to 
be hanging out with the flock at the south tip.  This is one 
strange-looking bird, and very cooperative for viewing.  There are a few 
differences between this bird and the Colorado common X hoodie at the URL 
in Joe Eaton's message.  Our bird has a row of white dots on the 
shoulder.  He has a purplish-brown rather than green sheen on its 
head.  (His head never looked green to me from any angle.  In contrast, the 
Barrow's looked anything from deep aqua to purple to me at different 
angles.  The commons always looked green to me.)  Also, ours almost always 
held his tail up (like a ruddy duck).

If anyone is interested, I can post pictures.

Question: Is it possible that Barrow's goldeneyes could hybridize with 
hoodies?  Both the head color and white wing spots seemed more consistent 
with Barrow's to me than common, but I'm no expert.

--
Laura