Scaup.

[IKLland]

Greater or lesser? Today Orange County, Ca. 
thanks

 

[AlexHenry]

Lesser. Narrow tall head, narrow bill nail

[Avery]

Perfect example of how you can’t trust iridescence colors. 

[Quiscalus quiscula]

Just now, Avery said:

Perfect example of how you can’t trust iridescence colors. 

Well.....

I think color is often overlooked as a field mark among birders. Of course, iridescence can and often is misinterpreted by the eye or through a picture, but I would probably say from Macaulay images, over 50 percent of the time the iridescence is correct. It's important to use all of the field marks on a bird in combination with any single feature. Probably a more reliable color field mark would be Western vs. Clark's Grebe.

[Avery]

29 minutes ago, Quiscalus quiscula said:

Well.....

I think color is often overlooked as a field mark among birders. Of course, iridescence can and often is misinterpreted by the eye or through a picture, but I would probably say from Macaulay images, over 50 percent of the time the iridescence is correct. It's important to use all of the field marks on a bird in combination with any single feature. Probably a more reliable color field mark would be Western vs. Clark's Grebe.

 I understand. I just think with Scaup in particular the iridescent is overly relied upon. Because when there are thousands of birds in a raft, iridescence is the easiest thing to see. 

[Quiscalus quiscula]

Just now, Avery said:

 I understand. I just think with Scaup in particular the iridescent is overly relied upon. Because when there are thousands of birds in a raft, iridescence is the easiest thing to see. 

I agree with you on that. It can be overwhelming to see so many scaup and so people may be driven to rely on one field mark, which may be inaccurate.

[IKLland]

7 hours ago, Avery said:

Perfect example of how you can’t trust iridescence colors. 

Yes! I use to heavily rely on this, then realized it wasn’t as good of a field mark as I thought, well because I kept wanting to call some birds hybrids. But yes, structure is much more important and I get it now…

7 hours ago, Quiscalus quiscula said:

Well.....

I think color is often overlooked as a field mark among birders. Of course, iridescence can and often is misinterpreted by the eye or through a picture, but I would probably say from Macaulay images, over 50 percent of the time the iridescence is correct. It's important to use all of the field marks on a bird in combination with any single feature. Probably a more reliable color field mark would be Western vs. Clark's Grebe.