Steve and Tweeters,

How was it determined that last year's bird was a Tufted Duck X Lesser
Scaup, as opposed to Tufted Duck X Greater Scaup? This sounds to me
like a difficult call, given that distinguishing even Greater and
Lesser Scaup from each other can be a tough call at times.

In April last year, a hybrid Tufted Duck was seen at very close range
in Ambleside Park, West Vancouver, BC. We called it a Tufted Duck X
scaup species, and left it at that. The bird was probably
photographed, however (it was certainly close enough!), and it might
be possible to determine which species of scaup was involved.

On the face of it, it seems very unlikely that Tufted Duck would
hybridize with Lesser Scaup. Tufted Ducks normally breed only in
Eurasia (where their range overlaps with Greater Scaup), and Lesser
Scaup breed only in North America. On the other hand, if a Tufted Duck
of either sex were stranded in N.A. in the breeding season, it's
possible that such a hybrid could result. All the same, I would
consider Tufted Duck X Greater Scaup to be far more likely than Tufted
Duck X Lesser Scaup.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net


----- Original Message -----
From: Andy Stepniewski <steppie at nwinfo.net>
To: TWEETERS <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 8:07 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] Tufted Duck may be a hybrid


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