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ppatricelli · #1 01-20-2005, 09:01 AM

OK, since everyone has time on thier hands, I was out looking for photo-ops yesterday (in the wild) and ran into this duck. I have been looking for and at waterfowl both in the wild and in private collections for 47 years and had never seen one before. I have 4 clousers for the first person to correctly identify it. It IS a true species and not a hybrid.

And I DON"T mean the American Widgeon.

Homebuilt · #2 01-20-2005, 09:31 AM

Don't hold me to it, but it looks a bit like Falcated Teal. Where'd you see it?

scruffy_fish · #3 01-20-2005, 09:33 AM

Falcated Duck

a.k.a. Falcated Teal or Bronze-capped Teal

Anas falcata

A Falcated drake at Frazier's Aviaries

This beautiful duck is distinguished by the feathers flowing over the tail of the males. Rather heavily built for a dabbling duck, it is found across northern Asia.

It is usually found in small groups and mixes freely with other dabbling species. In captivity it is not quarrelsome with other species and does not damage vegetation if given free range in a garden.

Creamy-white eggs, 6-10 in number, form the normal clutch, which is incubated for 25-26 days. The male may attend the brood, with the female, while the ducklings are very young.

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A pair of Falcated Ducks

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Bob Parsons · #4 01-20-2005, 09:34 AM

eurasian widgeon

Jay MacLaughlin · #5 01-20-2005, 10:34 AM

I think Homebuilt gets the clousers. Sure looks like Anas falcata to me. You've either been hanging around in Siberia and the coast of China or a waterfowl collector has lost a bird. Wasn't there a Cape Shelduck (from the Cape of Good Hope, not Cod) spotted a couple of years ago? Is there a duck fancier/exotic feather fly tyer with a hole in his fence somewhere on the outer cape?

capemike88 · #6 01-20-2005, 12:08 PM

Hybrid Pintail-Mallard?

capemike88 · #7 01-20-2005, 12:09 PM

Looked like a hybrid pintail/somthing cross, but after looking at those tail feathers.. and no speculum...

Idunno

masssalt · #8 01-20-2005, 12:22 PM

The Cape Shelduck turned out to be an escapee from the Yarmouth Zooquarium.

ppatricelli · #9 01-20-2005, 03:08 PM

Hey, I'm impressed!

No, It's not a Eurasian Widgeon.
THIS is a Eurasian Widgeon (same pond, same shoot!)

I got MUCH better pics this morning.

Yes, the bird is a Falcated Teal. Quite a long ways from home!!!
The bird is sitting on a pond just a cast off I-5 north of Eugene, OR. The birders in the NW are "flocking" to the pond to see it this morning.

It could be an escapee except they ARE incidental to the Aleutian Islands and they are reported down here in the winter every decade or so.

Homebuilt wins! Email me your address and I'll send you the flies.

Peter Patricelli
peterpatricelli@comcast.net