ML433241161

Age and sex

Adult Male - 1

Observation details

First NYS record if confirmed by NYSARC. Tough ID, and I could have easily overlooked it. I didn't know what I was looking at when I first saw this duck (Life Bird), but I thought it might be something different from the usual suspects. I took photos of it and the female Mallard it's paired with to study later. When I got home I reviewed the photos and did some research. When I saw photos of Mottled Ducks, I suspected this was what I had seen and I sent Shai Mitra a message with some photos. He thought it had potential. We met up the following morning to get a confirmation on the ID, since there is a lot of hybridization between MALL, MODU, and ABDU. It was a no-show all day Wed and Thurs, despite a lot of searching. It was re-found on Friday 4/8! Lighter color than ABDU, has a distinctive dark spot at the base of the bill, pale head which contrasts with the dark body, pale face with fine streaking, and a narrow white rear border to the speculum. Aggressively interacted with a male MALL during my observation, which is when I saw the speculum as it took short flights several times.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

ISO

1250

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/8.0

Shutter speed

1/640 sec

Dimensions

1800 pixels x 1200 pixels

Original file size

1.47 MB