ML107852371

Age and sex

Adult, Unknown sex - X

Media notes

Fulvous Whistling-Duck initially reported on 11 July 2018 by Don Sterba and here photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 12 July 2018 standing on the shore of the Ballona Freshwater Marsh, Playa Vista, Los Angeles County, California.

Observation details

This bird’s plumage patterns were a bit unusual for a duck. The overall coloration was a rich cinnamon-buff on the head, neck, and underparts, but a rather dark color on the back and wings apart from rufous-chestnut barring above. The forehead and the entirety of the face were a deep, cinnamon-buff in color and unmarked. I thought the crown was a darker shade of cinnamon-brown than was the face, but it is also possible that the difference in color reflected the different angle of the light hitting the face and crown, especially given that the nape, and sides of the neck were about the same shade as the face. Rather conspicuous was a dark brown stripe that was narrow yet unbroken as it extended from the junction of the back and neck up the back of the neck to the nape, where it ended abruptly. This stripe was relatively narrow, yet well-defined and quite conspicuous when seen from behind. Additional contrast on the neck resulted from a diffuse band of whitish to light gray that extended across the front and sides of the upper neck and onto the throat. Close inspection further revealed a pattern of dusky markings in this pale band that appeared to reflect dark bases to the feathers to produce an irregularly striated pattern. The lower part of the neck and what I could see of the breast, belly, sides, and much of the flanks were again a rich, cinnamon-buff in color, though seemingly an even richer color of the flanks. Also evident was a series of finer-like markings on the flanks that appeared to represent a band of white on the upper web of each of several feathers that began broad at the base of each feather, from which it tapered slightly before ending in a rounded terminus at the tip of the feather. As far as I could determine, this pattern was restricted to the upper half of each feather on which the lower half was uniformly cinnamon, but I further noted a narrow margin of blackish along at least the lower edge of the whitish band. The result was a series of several finer-like markings along the upper edge of the flanks that obscured the wing coverts in the closed wing. I noted only when this bird was standing that the lowermost part of the belly around the vent was whitish and that the undertail coverts were mostly if not entirely white. The underside of the tail extending beyond the undertail coverts appeared to be blackish. Given that the flank and scapular feathers largely obscured the wing coverts, my primary impression of the upperparts reflected a pattern of broad bars of deep, rufous-chestnut that extended across the tips of the generally sooty-brown scapular and mantle feathers, with the barring coarser on the scapulars as a result of their larger size relative to the mantle feathers, but the general pattern appeared to be similar. The rearmost scapular was a similar sooty-brown to blackish in color as the other scapulars, but the rufous-chestnut tip to this feather was narrow and inconspicuous. A white crescent that appeared to represent the uppertail coverts served to demarcate a relatively dark rump from what appeared to be a sooty-brown to blackish tail. I thought the coverts on the upper part of the closed wing near the shoulder were chestnut in color, whereas those lower on the wing appeared more blackish. I failed to see both the primary projection and the finer pattern on the remiges, which appeared to be uniformly sooty-brown to blackish. My impression when this bird flapped its wings was that they were rather uniformly dark both above and below, including the underwing coverts. The bill was an odd shade of dark gray with a suffusion of blackish speckling across the middle and distal parts of the upper mandible, and what appeared to be a large, black nail. The dark brown eyes were encircled by a narrow orbital-ring that was a battleship-gray in color. The legs and feet were a medium-gray color that may have tended toward bluish-gray.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

320

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/9.0

Shutter speed

1/640 sec

Dimensions

4162 pixels x 2685 pixels

Original file size

7.77 MB