Monday, July 27, 2009

Quiz #310 (2009-3-05) Answer


Click the picture for a larger view.

Answer by Tony Leukering

This week's quiz is yet another swimming bird and yet another bird heading away from us. The overall color pattern -- dark head, white collar, gray body -- rules out most options and drops us among the diving ducks near the back of the waterfowl. Note that the white collar does a huge job for us ruling out almost all swimming birds.

The gray sides rule out male goldeneyes and the gray rump rules out females of those species, as does the suggestion of black and white coming down onto the sides. These exclusions leave us with a couple merganser species, with the bird's crest just visible hanging down across the collar. The gray sides rule out Hooded Merganser.

Larry Semo took this picture of a cracking male Red-breasted Merganser.

Note that a similar picture was used in quiz #277.

Incorrect species provided as answers:
Hooded Merganser - 1

The 18 of 19 providing the correct answer:
Andy Dettling
Thomas Hall
Robert McNab
Peter Wilkinson
Su Snyder
Tara Nelson
George Cresswell
Al Guarente
Kevin Kerr
Chuck Carlson
Peter Burke
Mark Dettling
Margie Joy
Barbara Deneen
Tyler Bell
Joe Bens
Chishun Kwong
Aaron Brees

Answer: Red-breasted Merganser