ML411147191
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Adult Male - 1
Media notes
This wintering male Mexican Duck, present for its second winter after initially found and identified by Jim Pike on 25 January 2021. was here photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 24 January 2022 at Carr Park in Huntington Beach, Orange County, California.
Observation details
We were present in the park this afternoon for only a short time before Bevier spotted the continuing duck along the northwestern shore of the island. By the time I walked over the duck was already making its way across the lake to the northern shore, where it remined for a short time before returning to the water and joining a female Mallard (A. platyrhynchos). After these birds copulated in the water, they both swam over to the island and sat down amid the vegetation where difficult to see well. We then went on to look at other birds, but when a guy arrived and began spreading out seed, the birds all congregated on the bank where feeding madly in a tight pack essentially at our feet. Somewhat later, the Mexican Duck began swimming around in the southwestern part of the lake among the other birds, before eventually returning to the island. I was again able to get good views of this bird from distances down to under a meter as it was foraging in front of us, but at distances ranging 10-30 meters while it was swimming or standing on the shore of the island. The light was good, with the afternoon sun at our backs, and when not obstructed by other birds or the vegetation on the island, our views were quite good. I used exclusively my Zeiss 10 × 42 Victory FL binoculars to observe this bird at distances from which a scope was not necessary, and I took photos using a Canon 100-400 mm IS II telephoto zoom lens on a Canon EOS 7D Mark II body to take fewer photos than I had in previous visits. Although we saw this bird opening its bill as if calling, I never knowingly heard its vocalizations. This was a medium-sized duck that appeared similar to the Mallards it is overall size and structure, and even its plumage patterns were not entirely unlike those of the female Mallards. The medium-length bill tapered from a deep base to a blunt tip along a culmen that bowed downward in the center, in a shape that was like those of the Mallards. The forehead was steep and the crown was rounded, both on a head that was similar in size and shape to those of the Mallards. The neck was unremarkable in length for a duck, and it was slimmer than those of some ducks, but again, like those of the Mallards. The body was plump, full-chested, and it sat relatively high on the water. When walking on land, the posture was not quite as upright as diagonal, and the belly was deep but not hitting the ground as it can on some really overweight ducks. The wings were short and rounded, with the tertials broad throughout their length and with square tips that were curved only at their corners and almost completely covering the primaries, the longest of which extended only a short way beyond the largest tertial, and with the wingtips reaching roughly to the tips of the uppertail coverts. I saw the spread wings only briefly, when I noted that they were of medium length and tapering to pointed tips. The tail was short and with the outer edges curving inward distally to a narrow, jagged tip. The legs were short and stout, and the feet were relatively large and fully webbed. I also noted that the legs were unbanded. This bird’s overall patterns were not unlike those of a female Mallard, but it appeared to have a darker body that contrasted conspicuously with the paler face and neck. The forehead and crown were dusky, but when examined carefully the pattern was one of fine, blackish streaking on a buffy background. Demarcating the darker cap was a buffy supercilium that itself had some fine, dark streaking, and the pattern and coloration on the lower part of the face and the auriculars were similar. I did note some indication of a darker postocular-stripe that separated the supercilium and the auriculars, at least behind the eye. The paler buff color that characterized the face also extended across the throat and down about halfway down the foreneck and sides of the neck where demarcated relatively sharply with the warm, dark brown that extended across the lower part of the neck and across the breast. The breast was mottled darker, but I cannot now recall the precise pattern of the markings. The entire body and most of the closed wings appeared uniformly rather dark, but also with warm tones. The mantle appeared to be mottled, suggesting that the feathers had internal markings in addition to the rich-buff fringes, but I have little recollection of the pattern. Most of the scapulars had a complex pattern that contrasted dark brown centers with rich buff to cinnamon-buff fringed and “V-shaped” markings of this same color internally, but the longer feathers to the rear instead appeared to have uniformly dark brown centers that contrasted with a narrow but well-defined fringe of buff that extended along the edges and around the tip of each feather. I did not see the upperwing coverts particularly well in the closed wings, but my impression was that they were more grayish than the body, but also seemingly fringed paler to create a scaly pattern. The tertials were a cold, dark brown, but with the inner webs of the largest tertial blending to grayish internally. My views at times were sufficient to note that the secondaries had an iridescent speculum that varied from deep blue to aqua, or even greenish, depending on the light, and I also noted that there were narrow bands of white and black both internal to the speculum and along the trailing edge of the wing, but I cannot recall if it was the white or the black band that touched the iridescent portion of the feather. My recollection of the tiny portion of the primaries exposed beyond the longest tertial was that they appeared to be uniformly blackish. The uppertail coverts were quite dark, but with each feather having both sooty brown and cinnamon-buff to produce a mottled pattern that did not contrast as darker than the back or flanks. The upperside of the closed tail contrasted dark brown centers with narrow edge of whitish to pale buff that created a striped pattern but not a contrastingly white tail. The flanks appeared generally similar in color to the back and scapulars, but on these feathers the cinnamon-buff contrasted with dark brown both as a fringe around the edge and an internal pattern that suggested a “V” to result in a complex pattern that appeared to extend throughout the flanks. The undertail coverts were similarly colored, but I did not think the pattern was as complex, and even though I noted that the dark brown that characterized the flanks also extended throughout the belly, I again failed to notice the fine details of the pattern. Unlike the male Mallards, this bird did not have the uppertail or undertail coverts contrastingly black. The only additional thing that I noted when this bird flapped its wings was that the underwings were mostly white. The bill was a relatively bright, olive-yellow in color apart from the small, black nail in the center at the tip. My recollection is that the eyes were dark brown, but I cannot now recall the precise shade. The legs and webbed feet were a deep orange color that tended more toward reddish than yellow, and the claws were black.
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
- f-stop
- f/6.3
- Shutter speed
- 1/1600 sec
- Dimensions
- 4410 pixels x 2837 pixels
- Original file size
- 9.32 MB