Hello Tom and Tweets

Sure looks like an immature Barrow's Goldeneye - nice steep forehead, all dark bill (looks like the nail is slightly enlarged), yellow eye with dark (brownish?) pupil. I suspect this is an immature female with body plumage grayer but with the head plumage showing a brighter red/brown now. A non-breeding male would be showing male features by now.

According to the BNA account, a disjunct breeding population is located in southeastern Quebec - this seems more likely the source of the bird you saw in Austria than from our populations out west.

Brian H. Bell
Birding & Natural History Guide
mail to bell asoc at iso media dot com

----- Original Message -----
From: Tom Snow
To: tweeters at U.WASHINGTON.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2012 12:14 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Barrow's Goldeneye in Salzburg, Austria?


Greetings from North Carolina. I thought you all may be able to help identify whether the little guy (girl) I saw on the Salzach River in Salzburg, Austria last week is a female/juvenile Barrow's Goldeneye. We don't have them here in NC but reading online, it seems you do. How far from home was this lone bird?

http://tinyurl.com/8plg2bz

Thank you!

Tom Snow
Raleigh, NC



------------------------------------------------------------------------------


_______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters