Douglas Sherman
Staff
Eric is out of town and asked me to post this thread. Last week I was checking out ebird.org for birds in this area and found that there was a rare eurasian widgeon about 1 1/2 hours away, so my wife and I decided to check it out. We found it right away with a flock of american widgeons when we got to Green Valley Park in Payson, AZ. I wanted to get a great image of this bird, so I brought my 500mm lens. While I was getting my equipment out of the car, my wife was watching where he was swimming in the pond where we first found him. All of the sudden all of the birds in that flock were spooked and took off. We finally relocated him, and I started taking images. Here are two of the images.
The green patch on the second image made me think that this might be a hybrid of Eurasian X American Widgeon. See the American Widgeon below which has a green eye-stripe.
Hybrids can't be included in a life list, so I asked Eric what he thought. He thought that because of the green patch it might be a hybrid. I then contacted a good friend of mine who is an ornithologist and has worked with Cornel Lab of Ornithology and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago to get his take. He told me the literature said that the green patch was okay and was found on many pure Eurasian Widgeons. He, however suggested that the white forehead might be an issue. It should be more of a buffy white than a pure white. I went back and looked at other images I took and found several that were taken under cloud cover and the foreheads looked distinctly buffy as you can see in the first image. I figured out that the distinctly white forehead in the second image is a function of the direct sunlight in his face causing the forehead to be overexposed.
Below is the second image with the forehead darkened by decreasing the brightness. That also brings out the detail of the forehead.
As you can see, serious birding is a tough business. I am only a novice but working with Eric has helped me be a much more knowledgeable and a better bird photographer.
Please pile on with your bird images.
The green patch on the second image made me think that this might be a hybrid of Eurasian X American Widgeon. See the American Widgeon below which has a green eye-stripe.
Hybrids can't be included in a life list, so I asked Eric what he thought. He thought that because of the green patch it might be a hybrid. I then contacted a good friend of mine who is an ornithologist and has worked with Cornel Lab of Ornithology and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago to get his take. He told me the literature said that the green patch was okay and was found on many pure Eurasian Widgeons. He, however suggested that the white forehead might be an issue. It should be more of a buffy white than a pure white. I went back and looked at other images I took and found several that were taken under cloud cover and the foreheads looked distinctly buffy as you can see in the first image. I figured out that the distinctly white forehead in the second image is a function of the direct sunlight in his face causing the forehead to be overexposed.
Below is the second image with the forehead darkened by decreasing the brightness. That also brings out the detail of the forehead.
As you can see, serious birding is a tough business. I am only a novice but working with Eric has helped me be a much more knowledgeable and a better bird photographer.
Please pile on with your bird images.
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