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Now what!? How
can these photographs be labeled “good” when all three
show only half birds, and only the wrong half at that?
Well, I’ve always labeled the quiz photographs based
strictly on technical quality rather than how well they
manifest the field marks which might help you solve the quiz.
That said however, there are very good field marks in
these photos of the wrong ends of what are obviously ducks.
I’ve wanted to do duck butts for a long time because
I think they tell us a lot about how we look at birds (and
people!) and how we often overlook easily identifying
features.
Every caricaturist loves George Bush’s ears, but do you
even notice any other part of his physiognomy?
On the other hand, has anyone ever even looked at
Jennifer Lopez’s ears?
If you’re going to become a better birder, sooner or
later you will have to become acquainted with whole birds
rather than shutting down your observation skills once
you’ve noticed the bright colors, the relative sizes, or the
structural anomalies. The
easy, common species are a good place to start.
Are these ducks embarrassed or is this an avian version of
flipping off the paparazzi?
Once we set aside our anthropomorphism, we know every
species is adapted by evolution to feed in a specialized niche
and, thus, in a specialized manner.
These three species are “dabbling” ducks which feed
by “dabbing” on the surface of the water or by tipping up
to feed on aquatic animals and vegetation along the bottom of
shallow ponds. Dabblers
comprise the genus Anas,
and twelve are possible in Arizona.
A)—Good
photo, easy bird
Even birders who get past the easily identifying colors on
most male ducks probably stop after they have learned that
head and bill shape can be the keys to the more difficult
ones. Moreover,
it is so unusual for any of our birds to actually be named for
their most defining field mark that we often forget or
overlook how and why they were named, particularly if they are
common species with readily recognizable plumage.
In fact, there are some members of the Anas
genus whose common and scientific names do reflect what
one should notice first about the species, distinctive male
plumage notwithstanding.
Our first quiz bird should be the easiest to identify
because, if you proceed all the way to its far end where this
photograph takes us, you’ll find the identifying
characteristic for which the species is named.
This feeding dabbler has hoisted for us its long,
eye-catching, pointed tail.
Now you remember.
Northern Pintail really does have a “pintail,” but
who ever looks beyond the crisp white neck stirrup under the
contrasting dark brown head of the strikingly marked male?
Northern Pintail is Anas
acuta, and Latin scholars will also remember that this
species name, acuta,
is the derivative for acute or pointed.
You may not need that insight for the readily
recognizable plumage of the drake, but the cryptic, mottled
brown female also has the species’ namesake appendage, not
as obvious as the male’s, but longer and more pointed than
any of the other dabbling females for which she might be
mistaken. This
feeding male Northern Pintail was photographed last winter
along the Scottsdale Greenbelt in the first pond north of
Roosevelt.
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B)--Good
photo, difficult pair
If this is a pair, that has to be the male on the left with
the white belly and the female is the bird on the right with
the mottled plumage and darker belly.
Running through the roster of dabblers, the obviously
contrasting underparts of the two sexes eliminates Mottled
Duck, American Black Duck, and Cinnamon and Blue-winged Teal.
Those nice chevrons we can see on the female flanks
eliminate the wigeons but would sure look good on a Northern
Pintail had we not already dealt with that species.
Flank chevrons are also apparent on Mallard, Gadwall,
Northern Shoveler, and Green-winged Teal females, so we need
to look a little further and a little closer at the photo.
The term “speculum” refers to a small area of
iridescence in the inner secondaries of most of the dabblers.
It is thought that the males use the speculum in wing
preening as a courtship display to attract females. In
some of the females the speculum can be an identifying field
mark. Our photo
shows a dark speculum bordered fore and aft with white bars.
Gadwalls show a large white patch in the secondaries, a
“white” speculum if you will, so this is definitely not a
pair of Gadwalls, but this female rear end, especially without
the benefit of color, could pass for any of the remaining
three species. We
need help from the male.
Is there a birder out there breathing who has ever
mistaken the metallic green head of a Mallard drake for
anything else? Or
the huge, trowel-shaped bill of the Northern Shoveler, for
which the species is named, for anything else?
Or the fancy green-on-brown contrasting face of the
Green-winged Teal male for anything else? But I’m betting fully half of us have never even noticed or
realized that Mr. Mallard is our only duck with central tail
feathers that curl up. And
they’re black, contrasting with the rest of the white tail.
This pair of foraging Mallards was photographed last
winter in Eldorado Park on the Scottsdale Greenbelt.
C)—Bad
photo, easy
pair
This should be an easy pair because we’ve already done a
lot of homework. On
the other hand, we can’t see the flanks or belly on this
female and nearly all of our dabbling males show varying
degrees of black like this on their undertail coverts.
Because of our straight-on viewing angle, the female is
going to have to provide us with the diagnostics.
This is a top view of this female’s bottom end, and what
appears to be a dark uppertail is really the bird’s
primaries. Moving
forward (down in the photograph) we come to the obvious white
secondary patch which identifies this as a female Gadwall, the
only dabbling species, as we have already noted, with a white
speculum. The
black undertail coverts of the male Gadwall are really no more
extensive than those of the wigeon which also have white
bellies, but the uppertail coverts of the former are also
extensively black and the birds are known to hunters as
“black butts.” This
pair of Gadwalls was photographed last winter along the
Scottsdale Greenbelt in the first pond south of McDowell.
We all need this reminder to learn whole birds.
There are always useful field marks to be seen once,
and if, we can get past the splashy colors, George’s ears,
J.Lo’s . . . . |
