Lesser scaup

Great color and eye contact! Like the color of the water as well.

Ron, I like all the things you mentioned, along with the head turn, comp, and textures in the water. details are excellent.

Excellent details n colors !!!
Jagdeep Rajput

Ron.
Very nice picture and I like the colors and water reflection. Nice full details on the bird well accomplished by using this DOF.

Nice position and setting. Very nice IQ: I'd never guess this was such a high ISO.

Hey Ron, I know how unlikely this is in Florida, but I'm quite sure what you have here is a Greater Scaup rather than a Lesser. To be sure I checked Ducks Unlimited and Cornell Lab on the web. What cought my eye was the greenish tinted head which indicates Greater Scaup as the Lesser Scaup has a purplish irridecent head. Also D.U. states that in late winter the Lesser's back looks almost white in late winter. Anyway, this is a really nice shot of a scaup. The detail is fantastic when viewing the large version, I like the background and the lighting, especially on the head.

I love the golden water, and nice job with the color and detail on the head. The yellow eye looks great.

Gary, thanks for your comment. I always hate responding to comments like this because I am afriad I will always come off as being arrogant, and a know it all, but I never mean to be and I surely don't want what I write to come across like that . I will give it a try here and hope you don't take this in a bad way. I am mearly stating why I think this is a lesser versus a greater scaup.

Given the green in the head you might think greater. However, this is almost certainly a lesser. Lessers can show some green like this bird does along with purple depending on the light direction. This bird shows purple in other shots I have. However, the best evidence I have that this is a lesser comes from me seeing this bird fly in and land not far from me. The white on the wings was only on the secondaries and did not extend to the primaries. This is a very fool-proof ID trait IMO.

Just as an aside, and not that it means much as I am definately not the world authority on scaup, over my almost 20 years of being a professional waterfowl biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commission and viewing tens of thousands of scaup here in FL, I have only seen a greater scaup once and that was on the Indian River Lagoon, a brackish water habitat. Cheers.

Ron, I don't want to sound arrogant either, and I most certainly didn't mean to insult you in any way by disagreeing with your ID of this bird, However I'm still in the Greater Scaup camp on this one, as it's an absolute perfect match with ID photos I see on the web including Ducks Unlimited, and my book. I haven't seen any Lesser Scaup photos that has green on the head and everything I read specificly states that green or purple heads distinguishes the two species You'll have a tough time convincing me otherwise!!! This could get ugly!!

Head color is a notoriously unreliable mark for separating these species based on a single view (as anyone who has seen a mallard with a momentarily purple head will attest). Kenn Kaufman (who is as authoritative as it gets) states in Advanced Birding "Never use head color as a major field mark in a lone drake scaup." I'll admit I first thought Greater on this bird from the head shape in the thumbnail, but looking at the larger shot, I believe this has the relatively pointed (or "cornered"?) back of the head of a Lesser. I also think that the bill size is in keeping with Lesser, and if Ron saw the amount of white in the wing, that's a really important mark too.

Identifying a scaup from a single photo (and one that is perhaps not ideal for ID as a straight profile would be) is not an easy game and I would certainly defer to someone who saw it in the field, particularly an experienced observer.

Gary, generally speaking, on a perched (floating) scaup, head shape and bill size are the best marks; on a flying scaup, the amount of white in the wing. Head color is an overrated and often deceptive mark.

Nice over-the-shoulder pose, and I like the reflected habitat, wavelets and crisp presentation too.

Light and detail in the larger image are amazing Ron. Great eye contact

cheers
Rob

One last time. The amount of white on the wings is just about infalable as an identification trait, where the color in the head in not at all that way. How many different colors can you see in the speculum of a mallard even though the main color is blue. I can see purple, violet, green, etc, depending on the direction of the light. Color of irridecent feathers is never a good ID trait due to the fact the colors change with light angle. Give me 10 drake lesser scaup and have them move around in the light and you will see green in every one of them. I have observed thousands of these birds over 20 plus years as a field biologist. This bird had white only on the secodary feathers and not on the primaries. I have never seen a greater scaup drake with white only on the secondaries. White always extends into the primaries on greaters This is a lesser scaup. Moreover, three ID books I have read something like this, "males, head may show a purple gloss, and can be mixed with green." Note the words "may" and "can." That means to me, head color is not a good ID trait. Cheers. Ron

All said and done this is a greater photo of a Lesser scaup.The BG with the Duck is stunning.

Dan

Very interesting display of colors, a visual treat, I like the eye contact and head turn along with the good detail on the larger image, way to go.

large is fantastic beautiful shot

Wonderful...that head turn, and fantastic water and light, make the shot.

Hi Ron The larger version shows amazing detail and color. The head turn and eye detail are also great. And the textured ,colored water add to this very fine composition
Albert Darmo. Canada

Missed this one before!
Nice pose, great water, and the BG green that mimics the head sheen is delightful.
Sandy

Well composed, the reflected colors & patterns across the water are magic Ron.
Great light & detail - Well done!