ML105724561

Age and sex

Adult Female - X

Observation details

Continuing bird found yesterday by Paul Dickinson on his property. Adult female, in (for a female) fairly bright plumage. Associating with two female and one male Ruddy Duck. Compared to the female Ruddies it was slightly shorter necked and lower to the water, and maybe slightly longer-tailed, but otherwise similar in structure. Rather brighter buff on the chest and sides to the head, slightly paler on the throat. Black head stripes more distinct and darker than on Ruddy, with an additional stripe below the two shown by Ruddy. Back and flanks with fine pale vermiculations. It spent the early morning feeding in the mucky pond with the three ruddies, later on spent most of its time preening. By the time we left it was hiding in the shade of some bullrushes. When preening it showed white axiliaries and a white patch on the upper wing, but I didn’t get a good look at the extent of the upper wing patch. A photo of the open wing shows what appears to be inner primary molt, with all but the outer two primaries evenly shorter in length [edit: most primaries and secondaries are undergoing simulataneous molt, only the outer two primaries and some tertials are retained]. Many photos and video.

Technical information

Model

iPhone 6s

Lens

iPhone 6s back camera 4.15mm f/2.2

ISO

25

Focal length

4.2 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/2.2

Shutter speed

1/30 sec

Dimensions

2452 pixels x 1838 pixels

Original file size

803.76 KB