Common x Barrow's Goldeneye Cheam Lake

[Gord]

Last Sunday we went for a walk at Cheam Lake. We saw four Ruddy Duck but it was sort of quiet. As we were leaving we noticed three goldeneye. We said all three for Barrow's Goldeneye, not a common sight at the park. The male we thought looked a bit off. I snapped a few photos to document the uncommon find. Just this evening I had a chance to look closer and it looks good for a hybrid. I've never seen one of these before. It might be more obvious when it completes the molt. I question now the females as they seem a bit large in the bill and head shape is also off but hard to tell as photos are not great and not ideal to try and make an identification off a photo as head shape varies. The odds of three hybrids is very low. I guess it could be a family that stuck together through the winter?

_0244720 by Geordie LaForge, on Flickr


Female 1
_0244717 by Geordie LaForge, on Flickr

Female 2
_0244719 by Geordie LaForge, on Flickr

[Chris]

Interesting birds Gord. The male looks good for one but not sure about the females.

Apparently, hybrids between the Goldeneye species aren't as common as one would think.