okaugust Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 February 29, 2020, up in Montana looking for and finding Snowy Owls (Yeah!) and enjoying Ft Peck dam and surrounding areas, I found a one of these things is not like the others, I think, in the river area east of the dam. Four of the ducks are Redheads. The duck at 9:00 is I believe a Scaup, it has the coloring though I'm not 100% sure it's not just the light and shading. The rounder head and lower posture made me think it was a Greater. It's "rare" but I haven't gotten anything from the reviewer one way or the other yet. I'm notoriously bad about Scaups, because most of what I see are Lesser. Thoughts? Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jefferson Shank Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 It's a Greater Scaup. Note the rounded head compared to lesser. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okaugust Posted April 3, 2020 Author Share Posted April 3, 2020 Thanks! I'll let it sit in eBird and see if they catch up to confirming it at some point. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birding Boy Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 Agreed with Greater Scaup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Leukering Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 It's a scaup, certainly. However, identifying a scaup from a single, relatively poor photo is quite "dangerous." Is the bird or has the bird been diving? What does the head shape look like two seconds earlier or two seconds later? I would leave it unidentified, though I actually think that it's a Lesser. Greater Scaup is nearly the same size as Redhead, and this bird looks noticeably smaller. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okaugust Posted April 3, 2020 Author Share Posted April 3, 2020 None of them were diving. There was a flock of Redheads just floating, and a few more flew in, but no diving from any of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nivalis Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Tony Leukering said: It's a scaup, certainly. However, identifying a scaup from a single, relatively poor photo is quite "dangerous." Is the bird or has the bird been diving? What does the head shape look like two seconds earlier or two seconds later? I would leave it unidentified, though I actually think that it's a Lesser. Greater Scaup is nearly the same size as Redhead, and this bird looks noticeably smaller. I think this is the proper way to look at this one just because of the fact that there is only one photo and it is not great quality, I would just leave it as greater/lesser scaup 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okaugust Posted April 3, 2020 Author Share Posted April 3, 2020 Thank you all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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