Hi all,

I've been out of town and haven't been following this thread, so I'm not sure how much this has been covered, but the female duck shown at http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/u75/junewild/ is a female Mallard or perhaps some kind of mix. Spot-billed Ducks have white tertials, a much more distinct yellow tip to the bill, no white (or perhaps very little white) bordering the speculum (white borders are visible in the photos provided), and a more distinct facial pattern than shown in these photos (in part, this distinctness is due to a paler ground color of the head). Also, I believe the body feathers of Spot-billed Duck are mostly dark with only a thin pale border, which gives the bird an appearance similiar to American Black or Mottled Duck. Another point to look for, but not shown in the photos is the region under the tail. This area is very dark, and the darkest part of the body, on Spot-billed Ducks, unlike Mallards.

If searching the web for images of Spot-billed Duck, be aware that there are two subspecies. The western subspecies shows red spots at the base of the bill. The eastern subspecies, the one that has been recorded in Alaska, lacks these spots for which the species was named.

A good photo of a Spot-billed can be found at http://www.tsuru-bird.net/waterfowl1/duck_spot-billed2.jpg. You can also go to the "North American Stop Press" page at Surfbirds (http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery10), do a search for Spot-billed Duck, and see some very poor images of a Spot-billed Duck in Alaska that I took last spring.

John Puschock
Wedgwood, Seattle
g_g_allin at hotmail.com
http://www.birdtreks.com

From: Scrubjay323 at aol.com
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:38:52 -0500
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Spot-billed Duck?
To: VariedThrush at comcast.net; tweeters at u.washington.edu
CC:








Patricia,

Dennis & Bonnie Weeks and I spent from 10:00 to 11:30 or so today at
Capitol Lake and did not see "Spot". We did see loads of other ducks
including HOODED MERGANSERS and RUDDY DUCKS.

The directions we got were pretty vague so we may not have concentrated on
the right area. WE searched from Marathon Park to the freeway.

Hopefully it will show up again and I can get a better handle on where to
search.

Good luck!

Phil
Kelley
Lacey, WA
scrubjay323 at aol.com
360-459-1499

" We were few
and they were many. Now we are many and they are
few"
Confucius


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