Mystery Duck!!!

[semillama]

http://billofthebirds.blogspot.com/2009/06/mystery-duck-in-north-dakota.html

Any ideas as to what it could be???

Muscovy Duck X Scaup???

[semillama]

1. Mystery solved!

http://billofthebirds.blogspot.com/2009/06/mystery-duck-in-nd-final-chapter.html

[XemaSab]

2. I looked through the field guide and came up blank

What was baffling about it is that it looked a little different than the other male scaup, but not XOMG HUGH SERIES different... all the other birds I came up with (BB Whistling Duck, anyone?) would have given this bird some interesting plumage. :shrug:

[semillama]

3. Did you check the second link?

Turns out it has a bill tag from a research program. I never even knew that bill tags existed!

[XemaSab]

4. I've seen neck bands, leg bands, and wing tags

but never bill tags. :shrug:

[tigereye]

5. doesn't it seem like folks have gone a bit overboard with their varied ways

of tagging birds and other creatures for research? The last few years it has started to bother me (and I'm not someone who usually tends to react to things of this sort.)