Young Naturalist J took this photo with four different species of duck in it. The quiz is naming all 4 species of duck and a bonus points if you can prove there are more than two species of scaup here!
HERE is an larger sized picture to help with the ID’s!
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Categories: Birds · Could Be Hard · Easy · Quiz · Test · birdQUIZ
Welcome everyone to the birdQUIZ blog that will help you with your bird identification skills. Feel free to use any kind of reference you have available for your identification (Sibley’s Field Guide is recommended)!! Good Luck Everyone!
If you need spoilers click on the comments but I strongly suggest that you try to identify the bird first before moving down to see what answers have been given already. The person who commented could be wrong!! Most or all of these birds have been identified in the hand already and we know the answer (unless we say we don't know the answer).
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Please note that we will not be updating this on a daily basis and started it because we thought would be fun to do. Please check out the main blog at "Mon@rch's Nature Blog" and "The Ovenbird"
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25 responses so far ↓
Bennet // April 15, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Ummm…Lesser Scaup, Greater Scaup, Red-breasted Merganser, and Bufflehead?
John // April 15, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I see: Greater Scaup, Red-breasted Merganser, Bufflehead, and Ruddy Duck.
At least I think that’s what’s there. I’m less certain of the first and last than of the middle two.
Linda in Erie // April 16, 2008 at 12:38 am
Red-Breasted Mergansers, Lesser Scaups, One Greater Scaup, Bufflehead
I didn’t know there was more than just the 2 species of scaup.
Birdfreak // April 16, 2008 at 10:47 am
Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, Lesser & Greater Scaup.
Nathan // April 16, 2008 at 11:28 am
I think John has it. Those are the four I see as well.
Nathan // April 16, 2008 at 11:29 am
Wait, except for Lesser Scaup instead of Greater.
So Lesser Scaup, RB Merg, Bufflehead and Ruddy.
mon@rch // April 16, 2008 at 12:16 pm
If there are two Scaup species . . . . then there must be 5 species of duck here! Which one is Less and which one is Greater?
Linda in Erie // April 16, 2008 at 5:27 pm
I’m thinking the Lesser has a head shaped like a conehead, like a lowland gorilla. The Greater has a rounder head. I think the Greater one is in the middle of the photo. I think the duck to the right of him is a female Lesser but her head is turned so you don’t see the white around the bill. I don’t see the Ruddy others are commenting about. I saw one there a couple of weeks ago but their pronounced tails stick up out of the water. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place for that. I can’t wait for the answer from the expert!
Jochen // April 17, 2008 at 2:48 am
Nathan should be banned from these things. I agree with him and am just wondering if that isolated bird in the center might be a female Goldeneye (making it a 5-species pic, which I suppose it isn’t or it would have been called accordingly by the authors).
Nathan // April 17, 2008 at 7:11 am
I dunno Jochen. I missed the Field Sparrow a couple posts ago and I apparently missed the Greater Scaup as well cause I’m not seeing it.
I think that isolated bird is a female RB Merg with it’s head turned so you can’t see the crest.
Tim // April 17, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Here are my thoughts put down on the photo:
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2253/duckquizeditiw0.png
I’ve circled one of each of the 5 species I could identify.
The bird I circled as Greater Scaup struck me as being a Greater by the very thick neck, and how the peak of the crown is placed more caudal than in the nearby Lesser.
I hope I got it correct! Thanks for the quiz….
Hope // April 17, 2008 at 9:04 pm
I’ll say Red-breasted Merg (nice male front and center, plus many more), Greater Scaup (the female in the front left has the classic head shape), Bufflehead (top left), and…erm…Ruddy Duck (male near the top right).
AnimalGuy // April 17, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Red-breasted Merganser, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, and maybe Bufflehead? and/or Hooded Merganser?
I’m not sure about the last two.
The Greater Scaup is in the middle, the other three male scaups are Lesser Scaups. You can tell them apart by their foreheads; Greater Scaup has a lower, more rounded forehead.
David Bell // April 17, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Did you mean to say prove there is more than one species of scaup?? Or more than two Aythya sp. perhaps?
I see Red-breasted Merganser (11 or so), Bufflehead (2), Lesser Scaup (5?), two possible Ruddy Ducks in the back, and what looks like a Greater Scaup right in the middle of the front group. It appears to have a rounded head than the Lessers beside it. It could just be the photo angle though. So, are there 5 species?
Chris W // April 18, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I see 8 species. Red-breasted merg, Both Scaup, Ruddy Duck, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye (the duck in between the two rafts and dead center in the photo). That’s 6.
However, there is a 7th species floating in the raft in the foreground. From the Red-breasted Merg, go back one duck and over one duck. It is not a Goldeneye and is certainly not a Scaup. Perhaps a female Wigeon?
Oh, and the male duck that is second from the left is a Ring-necked. That makes 8.
Tim H // April 18, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Did my comment not go through because it had a link in it?
I agree with 5 species: Red-breasted Merganser, Lesser Scaup, Greater Scaup, Bufflehead, and Ruddy Duck. The Greater Scaup is the male bird right behind the closest male Red-breasted Merg.
David Bell // April 18, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Tim,
I think your post went through, you circled and labeled them?
Chris: The duck in the middle is a RB Merg. It’s too long for COGO, and has no white on the sides. After seeing more than 200 of them in the past few weeks I can tell you that much.
Tim H // April 19, 2008 at 10:29 am
Yes David, finally my comment with the link went through!
The suspense is killing me!!!
Chris W // April 20, 2008 at 1:52 am
Well, amount of white has nothing to do with it. I see what you mean though. You missed a field mark. The tail is sticking up.
What do you think the bird to the right of the Gr Scaup is? It’s not a merg.
mon@rch // April 20, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Greater . . . Lesser Scaup . . . I will let you guys battle that one out! I could only really figure out the Greater Scaup being there but I was never good with their ID (reason for bonus points)! Regarding the other species . . . . the Red-breasted Merganser was an easy one! The Bufflehead was also another almost easy one to find! The Ruddy Duck was the trick one that most of you got! So answer was Scaup Species (I thought only Greater but their could be Lesser there), Red-breasted Merganser, Ruddy Duck and Bufflehead!!
Regarding the Ring-necked Duck, Common Goldeneye and American Wigeon . . . . I never recorded in my note book seeing any of them! We looked hard to find as many species as we could in that hour and although the camera makes some species blurry . . . I would have at least wrote them down in my notebook if they were there (we had 4 eyes looking)!
I have another quiz to do here soon but just got back from a 3 day trip! Will try to get it posted tomorrow!
Nathan // April 21, 2008 at 2:00 pm
To me, the clear Scaup in the middle says Lesser because its got a skinny head with a little “notch” in it at about 1 o’clock. I could see the ones to its right being Greater though.
I’ve been fooled by them many times before so no promises.
Chris W // April 21, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Ok. We all agree on the following species:
Red-breasted Merg, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead and Ruddy Duck. The center Scaup is a Greater. I think we agree on that as well.
The Duck to the right of the Greater Scaup is not a scaup, Merg or Ruddy. I spotted a female Horned Grebe yesterday that looked a lot like the bird in this picture. So Horned Grebe perhaps?
Sorry about the Ring-necked Duck thing. I forgot to look at the bill. I was also throwing a few things out there to see what people thought.
The bird next to the Gr Scaup is a 6th species though. I’m certain of that.
Tim H // April 22, 2008 at 10:21 am
Is this the possible 6th species we’re talking about now?
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t277/timbirdboy/duckquizedit2.jpg
If yes, I highly doubt it’s any grebe species. The head is too large and shaped wrong, and the bill is placed to far “down” on the “face.” My personal impression was a female Greater Scaup. Any reason why it’s not?
Maybe I’m looking at the wrong bird, who knows!
Female Greater Scaup
http://www.roysephotos.com/zzGreaterScaup21D.jpg
David Bell // April 23, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I think he meant the bird below the GRSC you circled there. I think the bird he was talking about is a RB Merg but that’s just me. I still see 5 species when I look at it. There may be some little specks in the back that are different, but it’d be impossible to tell for sure from this shot.
Duck Decoy Master // July 2, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Thats unusual to see so many different species at once. I’ve never seen anything like that.
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