[EBB Sightings] Mystery aythya-type duck at Lake Merritt, Oakland (Alameda Co)

Stephanie Floyd wrote:

> Hilary Powers and I birded Lake Merritt in Oakland
> (Alameda County) this afternoon in search of the
> tufted duck and the hooded merganser x common
> goldeneye.  Didn't find those, but did find an unusual
> red-headed aythya-type duck on the lake just behind
> the Nature Center. It might be a female redhead, but
> the back looks more gray than brown....

This is quite possibly the same bird that I saw last year, and the
female redhead in Sibley was the closest thing as far as I could tell,
though others held out for a female ring-necked duck. I'm new enough to
birding never to have heard of a pochard, common or otherwise, the
red-crested pochard on Sibley's "Exotic Waterfowl" page having made no
impression at all. But one of the pictures Stephanie found online looks
so much like the bird at the lake, it's tempting to think it might be a
match:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Aythya_ferina_02.jpg/798px-Aythya_ferina_02.jpg

Any ideas?

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