At the state fish hatchery on Voight's Creek in Orting
yesterday I saw a very odd looking merganser. It was
hanging out with a flock of six pairs of common
mergansers, two male hooded mergansers, and one female
hooded merganser. There was also a mature bald eagle
perched only about 30 feet up in a tree right over the
creek. The odd bird in question had a green head, but
had the crests of the female common merganser. It's
body was overall dark gray - darker than the other
females. It had the white throat patch of the female
and looked a bit like a juvenile common merganser, but
the plumage seemed all wrong for this time of year,
plus it clearly had a dark green head. This bird also
seemed to be acting territorial - it was chasing the
male mergansers and acting aggressive.

Has only one seen such a plumage variation in females?
Is this perhaps some kind of hybrid? (or
hermaphrodite!?)

Thanks

=====
Inga Holmquist
P.O. Box 1141
Orting, WA 98360
ingawh at yahoo.com

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