Birds of a Feather is back with our new blog, Birding and Bonding! Our previous objective remains the same. Our goal is to find all birds that live on Long Island year round. The only rule is that in order to add a bird to our list, we must see it when we are together. That's where the bonding comes in. Life can get so hectic that we sometimes fail to enjoy the more important things. This gives us a wonderful outlet to make sure we take the time.

Of course, Long Island has many migratory birds, as well. We certainly don't want to ignore them. We will blog about them as well. Armed with new cameras and renewed incentive, we look forward to getting back on the birding trail!

Friday, June 4, 2010

Fashionable Ducks

Thanks to our fellow birder Sandy, we have another mysterious looking duck.
It looks as though they are wearing feathered hats.

I know you are not going to believe these pictures but I promise you we did not touch them up.  Now I looked through three separate bird books, the National Audubon Society Field Guide, Peterson Field Guide and National Geographic complete Birds of North America, and these guys were no where to be found.

Our fellow birder Sandy believes one of her neighbors across the the water from their home is somehow cross breeding these poor Ducks.

So if it is a cross breed, what on earth is it a mix of.  I can't find any duck with a feathered head like these.  So once again we are putting them out there for our fellow bloggers to help us identify.

Please let us know what you come up with.
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2 comments:

  1. RavenJune 4, 2010 at 4:57 PM

    Wow, these really are the last days!!! It almost looks like chicken feathers. Maybe someone glued feathers on there heads just to start excitement like the loch-ness monster. Watch out, we may be on candid camera!!!

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  2. AnonymousNovember 8, 2011 at 5:51 PM

    They look like a cross between a Eurasian Tufted Duck and Wood Ducks and/or Mallards. I have around 17 of them in my pond and 3 are completely black in color and I have one that looks just like a male mallard with a top hat. They are pets and my wife actually goes out and brushes the little crest with her fingers to help keep them clean and shapely. A lot of times ducks and geese will stop migrating and settle in one spot. (notoriously so here in Georgia and other Southern states.) Sometimes only one of a certain breed my stay and they will eventually cross breed with other. I have witnessed this in my own pond. I have one large white male goose that breeds with Canadian geese every year, so we have a few Canadian geese with white faces. I had one tufted male (Romeo) that has bred with wood ducks, mallards and even tries with some American Coots that come by sometimes. I think he would have mounted a wood pecker if someone would've held it down for him. Romeo never heard of the old saying "Birds of a feather flock together." As of this moment we have 56 year round ducks and geese on the pond and 29 of them are offspring of mixed breeds.

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