Chestnut Teal, Marlborough

[FraserGurney]

Found by Bill Cash today at the Grovetown Lagoon Walkway. eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/atlasnz/checklist/S105463525

[FraserGurney]

Has anyone had a look for this bird/planning to have a look? I'm hoping to come up tomorrow

[Michael Szabo]

Keegan Miskimmin reports via eBird that the Chestnut Teal was still present today:
https://ebird.org/atlasnz/checklist/S105520739

[FraserGurney]

Steve Wood had the teal at 8am this morning, however Gerogie and I wasn't couldn't find it between 10am - 3:45pm. A small consolation was 3 black-fronted dotterel on the dam on the other side of the track from the lagoon.

If anyone else is looking for this bird be careful as there are heaps of wasps around.

[Steve Wood]

Bird present at first light this morning. (7:15) on the far side just past the bridge.The light was not good so went to check out Grassmere and Lake Elterwater and returned in better light after 10:00 ish. Met Fraser and co. who had just arrived but couldn’t relocate the bird.
Not sure if the bird has since been found but the afternoon would be the best light conditions with sun behind you if anyone was thinking of going.
Not hard to find if it is there.

7092E8BE-5AA1-4D36-9476-1354C9B3B41E.jpeg (695.28 KiB) Viewed 2485 times

[FraserGurney]

The teal was back this evening, thanks to Keegan and Annie for the tip off. I'll choose to believe it flew in this evening rather than being present all day..

[Jake]

We managed to find him after a little perseverance. Just out from the first hidden maimai, probably within 100m of the carpark. There's a lot of Grey Teal and it paid off to keep scanning the small groups and then going back over them a few times

Sunday, 12:30 - 14:45

A pleasant wee twitch mid-harvest. Added to ebird and picture up on "the gram" https://www.instagram.com/p/Cblx_C-J2BQ ... =copy_link

[Michael Szabo]

Bradley Shields reports via eBird that it is still there this morning:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S105969589

[Jake]

He was present tonight about 17:45. Just near the weird iron fence panel, about 30m past the carpark footbridge. He flew down to us, from being hidden nearer the carpark, after a Kahu had flown over down there. He was vocal with a "teep" whistle, same as the Grey Teal, that were calling back

[RussCannings]

Just wondering if anyone thinks there's something a little 'off' about this bird? If it's a pure Chestnut of course it's either an immature male or eclipse male. The chestnut breast, darker brown flanks, and whitish rear-flanks are all positive attributes of a Chestnut-type teal. On the other, hand the head/face to me looks like classic Grey Teal with very pale cheeks and throat, and a very round head. When I think about Chestnut Teal I've seen in Aussie, or look at images online--they appear to have more elongated head-shapes than Gray Teal and their faces are fairly consistently more dusky than Grey Teal, with less contrast between the darker brow and paler cheeks (and when there is contrast with Chestnuts, it's usually because their crowns can be more blackish or dark-greenish in males--this bird does not have a particularly dark crown to my eyes).

I highly doubt this can be an adult male Chestnut Teal (in eclipse) as the head should darker with more green tones--particularly in the crown. Perhaps I am ignoring an aspect of natural variation? If anyone has some examples of similar birds that would be appreciated. So could this be typical for an immature male? Or perhaps a post-menopause female (Yes that's a thing--I've seen female Mallards start to take on male phenotypical features in old age)?

---Or, could this be... dare I say... a hybrid? Not just a Chestnut x Grey, but perhaps a more likely combo being Brown x Grey (or backcross of some sort)?

I guess I'm just highly troubled by the fact that this bird appears to have a class Grey head and I'm not sure how that can be if it's a Chestnut Teal.

This could very well be the ramblings of a jealous North Islander so if anyone can talk some sense into me, please do

Russ