Mystery Bird
This bird was photographed on the tiny pond at Winchester Park, Saturday, April 24, 2010.
The address: 1250 West Winchester St. (approx. 6400 South), Murray Ut. The pond is a tiny, isolated body of water, west of the Jordan River. The bird was the only one of its kind on the pond. It appears that the bird is a Hooded Merganser, but its plumage seems to be unique when compared to images I've reviewed.
Eric Huish tells me that the Sibley Guide mentions that 'Hoodies' will cross with Goldeneye and Bufflehead, which intrigues me concerning the possibility with this bird.
(See the correct answer at the bottom of the photos)
THE ANSWER TO CORRECT ID WAS PROVIDED BY KRISTIN PURDY WHO STATED:
"Rich, Your mystery bird appears to be a Hooded Merganser, with no mixed parentage. The bird is a young male entering his second year of life. That means he retained from his hatch year feathers that look like his mother's, but with an eye (yellow) and beak (black) that look like his father's. In addition, he's starting to develop some of his adult male feathers. In your image of the bird standing in the vegetation, there are several all-black feathers with a white edge folded above the folded brown wing. Those black-and-white feathers are actually the innermost flight feathers, called tertials, that lay on the top when a wing folds inward like a fan."
Kristin Purdy, April 25, 2010
The handsome male Hooded Merganser shown below is what the 'Mystery Bird'
will look like sometime in the future!
Richard B. Young
