[EBB Sightings] It Was a Shelduck

A listmate sent the pix to Joseph Morlan, who identified the bird I saw 
yesterday at Lake Merritt as a female Ruddy Shelduck. The illustration 
in Sibley only shows the male; the female is very similar, but with a 
more whitish head and without the black collar.

It's a refugee from India or eastern Asia, probably by way of someone's 
captive flock. But well worth seeing - the world is full of hybrid mutt 
ducks that can look like nothing on earth, but one glimpse of this is 
enough to be sure that it's a species of its own and not a cross.

I gather it's still there; someone mentioned seeing it today.

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