Diving Duck - Lake Ontario (1 Viewer)

[erinder]

Hey all,
I saw some ducks today near the shore of Lake Ontario (Burlington area) that I'm having trouble identifying. They are approx the size of mallards, maybe a little smaller, with a long narrow bill, black top of head with a "tuft" jutting out back", with the black ending in a line through the eye.. with white in the lower half of the head. The breast was a reddish brown, and the rest of the body was dark coloured (probably brown?).
I noticed one of them dive and come up with a small fish.

Any ideas?? I thought maybe a merganser or grebe of some sort but can't seem to find anything that matches, particularly the head colouration. Wish I had a camera.. I'll try to get a shot tomorrow if they're still out.

erin

 

[AKestrel3]

A guess

To venture a guess, take a look at the Red-necked Grebe. But it is only a guess without looking at your photograph or the birds on the water.

Good luck!

 

[erinder]

Brilliant guess! That looks remarkably like the duck I'm talking about, though I don't remember the yellow on the beak, and somehow I think the chest was more reddish, along with the neck, but I could be wrong. Body shape definitely looks right. I'll have to take a better look tomorrow to be sure.

To venture a guess, take a look at the Red-necked Grebe. But it is only a guess without looking at your photograph or the birds on the water.

Good luck!

 

[Cory Laughlin]

Duck sounds familiar

I've worked with most of the North American duck species at Sea World San Diego and sounds like you are describing a red-breasted merganser.
All of the grebes are much smaller than a mallard so I ruled them out. Hoodies are very petite and common mergansers don't have the reddish breast. Hope you get a photo.

Cory

[

QUOTE=erinder]Hey all,
I saw some ducks today near the shore of Lake Ontario (Burlington area) that I'm having trouble identifying. They are approx the size of mallards, maybe a little smaller, with a long narrow bill, black top of head with a "tuft" jutting out back", with the black ending in a line through the eye.. with white in the lower half of the head. The breast was a reddish brown, and the rest of the body was dark coloured (probably brown?).
I noticed one of them dive and come up with a small fish.

Any ideas?? I thought maybe a merganser or grebe of some sort but can't seem to find anything that matches, particularly the head colouration. Wish I had a camera.. I'll try to get a shot tomorrow if they're still out.

erin [/QUOTE]

 

[Balego]

Hi Erin

I took photos of red necked grebes along the shore at Burlington in Lake Ontario just this past weekend, right in front of the Burlington on the Lake hotel. Is this the area you saw them? They would swim into shore from deeper water each morning and just float there for a while before heading back out again. Gave me wonderful opportunities to photograph them.
If you click on my username, then go to my gallery, you will see a photo of one I took there.
Also keep your eye out for long tailed ducks, mergansers, and scoters there. Some of each were hanging around near the grebes in the early morning.

Bev

 

[Larry Lade]

From your description I also thought, as Cory did, that the bird you saw was a Red-breasted Merganser

 

[Balego]

I disagree with red breasted merganser, because Erin mentioned black top of head, with the black ending across the eye. The male red breasted merganser has a completely black-ish (dark green?) head, ending in a white neck ring, and the female has a redish head with the white at the chin and front of the neck. Only the female has a brownish body, the male is clearly black and white bodied, with the redish breast. I did see red breasted mergansers along that shore, but the description Erin gave, to me, sounds more like the red necked grebe.