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

	<474B9BC8.80906 at powersedit.com>

Wow, that is a strange looking bird.  Here is another photo of female 
Common Pochard (Eurasian species, rare in Alaska, super-rare in 
California) with somewhat similar plumage (most are duller gray-brown 
than this):

http://mangoverde.com/birdsound/picpages/pic27-120-1.html

However, note that the Pochard has a sloped forehead and bill, almost 
like a Canvasback, but your bird looks like it has a very steep 
forehead.  Also, female Common Pochard in winter does have a light ring 
around the bill, but it is not supposed to be so narrow and sharply 
defined as your bird's.

As you know, Lake Merritt is home to all sorts of released exotics and 
domestic variants, so caution is in order, though if the bird is 
associating with migratory scaup and has returned on its own for the 
second year, that provides some circumstantial evidence for wild origin.

So, in conclusion . . . beats me, but thanks for posting.  Looking 
forward to seeing what others think.

Glen Tepke
Oakland


Hilary Powers wrote:

> 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?
>