Friday, January 29, 2010

Diving Ducks Identified

Last Sunday I posted photos of diving ducks. Here is the ID. In each case I had the advantage of having watched, and photographed, the bird swimming on the surface and then diving. If I found these photos without the context, I would have been hesitant about putting a name on them.

Diver #1 - Red-breasted Merganser




Diver #2 - White-winged Scoter - I am not sure it was fair including this one since the white-wing was not at all visible, but then it is not visible in the companion photograph below which is a good thing to know when looking at black ducks. It took me a lot of searching to discover finally that the Surf Scoter also has red legs, but not the Black Scoter. If anyone knows how to distinguish White-winged & Surf in the diving photo, I would love to hear from you. I had the distinct advantage of watching the lone White-winged Scoter, so IDing the photo was not a problem




Diver #3 - Common Eider




Diver #4 - White-winged Scoter




Good birding!

2 comments:

Debbie Miller @HooootOwl said...

Very nice photos. This is my first view of a White-winged Scoter. Beautiful!

Unknown said...

Diving is the most exciting activity You can feel the immensity of the ocean. It's like traveling to another world. unexplained.This blog is amazing and vey interesting.
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