Interesting scaup like thing (1 Viewer)

[Joern Lehmhus]

My point was that the plumage is unusual (with some marked male and female/young characters) for any Aythya.

Agreed:t:

And thanks CAU for your detailed explanation! Mottled surely explains what I wanted to say with dirty and irregular looking.

concerning old females developing male characteristics, this is something that would also fall under the explanation "intersex", I thought.
As far as i have always understood this term "intersex" means a bird of one sex showing some characters of the other sex in plumage and sometimes also in bare part coloration. An old female showing male characteristics would also fall under this definition,
though I have heard from waterfowl keepers in Germany also the term "hahnenfederig" (that translates to something like "Cock feathered", I suppose) for this specific case.

concerning the subject bird, I ´d still feel uncomfortable with any of the IDs we discussed and leave it unidentified at this time-I´d just say there are probably some genes of another Aythya in there...

 

[Gentoo]

Well thanks for all the interest here. As far as Ring Necked Duck x Scaup is concerned, I have some pictures of one of those myself:

http://www.pbase.com/shonn/image/94086352

http://www.pbase.com/shonn/image/91872877

AS far as the amount of black on the bill, Greater Scaup is highly variable in this. Check out the collage I did:

http://www.pbase.com/shonn/image/110339088

Although now that I look at it again, I guess the black doesn't extend as far down the sides of the bill as the subject bird.