Friday, February 12, 2016 Green-winged Teal hybrid
Seward, Alaska

I thought I had found the first-of-year GREEN WINGED-TEAL on Tuesday. This is an unusually early date for this species.

Yesterday, I finally took a close look at my photos. To my surprise the drake had a large whitish patch at the base of his long bill, and no apparent vertical bar on his side. Even the head pattern was different. Even more unusual than I thought! A female duck also shared the little pond. 

Dave Sonneborn suggested maybe this was a Green-winged Teal x Mallard hybrid. It sure is an oddball!

Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward, Alaska

1 comment:

  1. Carol,
    Just a shot in the dark, but maybe a hybrid with N. Shoveler?
    Gary Lyon

    ReplyDelete