Tweeters,

Ellen and I reported a Tufted Duck near John Day Dam yesterday. The pedigree of this duck is in question. This may be the same bird that wintered here last year.Steve Mlodinow apparently studied this bird a year ago (?) and determined it was a hybrid Tufted Duck/Lesser Scaup. We studied the hybrid plates in Svensson and Grant (Collins Bird Guide [Europe] prior to reporting it and felt safe in eliminating a hybrid. Plumage and structural characteristics to us appeared entirely to favor Tufted save the length of the tuft, which is short (but apparent) on the John Day bird. We assumed tuft length is variable, but maybe it is not. Perhaps there are other features on this bird that indicate it's a hybrid, too.

So, it's best to regard our sighting as a possible Tufted Duck pending further study of this bird.

Andy and Ellen Stepniewski
Wapato WA
steppie at nwinfo.net