Subject: [Tweeters] Odd Goldeneye Hybrid, Kitsilano Point, Vancouver BC
Date: Nov 12 21:01:39 2010
From: Michael Price - loblollyboy at gmail.com


Hi Tweets

This morning (Nov 12/10) at Kitsilano Point on Vancouver's west side, there
was a bizarre-looking male *Bucephala*-type hybrid in a large flock of
mostly Barrow's Goldeneye *B. islandica*, one male Common Goldeneye *B.
clangula*, a few Bufflehead *B. albeola* and up to seven Hooded
Mergansers *Lophodytes
cucullatus*. Description of the bird on the water as follows:

body: scapulars, back and tail solid black; chest, sides and folded wings
unpatterned white, except for a very thin horizontal black line along the
wing-side division extending forward from the black tail to mid-way point
along the side.

head: crown entirely black, extending down to touch or include the eye; a
bright white loral spot, and a horizontally long wide cheek patch extending
back onto the auriculars; neck and throat black.

size and shape: body size was similar to associate goldeneyes; head-shape
was unusual in the bird seemed to have a mostly-rounded head with a peak
above and behind the eye; when the bird was directly facing the observer, it
was clear that the crown actually narrowed to a pointy-headed crest.

Barrow's x Common hybrids are usually a piece of cake, but this one is most
certainly not that hybrid. One parent appears to have been Common Goldeneye,
but what the other could have been is not immediately clear, though obvious
possible candidates are Hooded Merganser or Bufflehead. It's one very
odd-looking bird.

I hope to have some (probably pretty crappy but showing salient features)
pictures up soon, thanks to my friend's borrowed camera.

Also, in the small pond just behind the planetarium, there was a nice drake
Eurasian Wigeon with the American W flock there, and several more Hooded
Mergansers.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
loblollyboy at gmail.com

Every answer deepens the mystery.
- E.O. Wilson
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