Chestnut Teal, Travis Wetlands

[Oscar Thomas]

Seen this evening by Noah Fenwick.

[andrewcrossland]

There’s gonna be a lot of embarrassed birders that visited Travis today!! We’ll not name names but there’s definitely a media story in two new species fir the site being found during an ornithological conference…

[NoahF]

Noticed this bird this afternoon while doublechecking I was counting the Grey teals correctly. I have provided some cropped photos below.
https://ebird.org/atlasnz/checklist/S112277617

[Davidthomas]

Fraser Gurney has the teal again today by the concrete bridge near the entrance.

[Oscar Thomas]

After some time hiding away Bradley Shields refound the bird in the original flooded paddocks.

[AnnetteC]

We watched it for quite a while. We saw it mating with another teal late this evening.

[CMKMStephens]

I was still in town this morning, on tour with Heather R. Didn't need to search very hard since I quickly ran into a local birder, who had run into Annette and Bradley.

983.JPG (281.34 KiB) Viewed 3296 times

930.JPG (242.49 KiB) Viewed 3296 times

870.JPG (296.39 KiB) Viewed 3296 times

[Ian Southey]

I don't normally jump straight to hybrids but I'm wondering if this bird might be a hybrid Brown X Grey Teal. In some pictures it looks like it has the pale ghost of a white half collar in the front of the neck, the bill seems a little heavy and, even more tenuously, perhaps a slightly longer body and tail. None of these things is spectacularly obvious and one good moult might clear them all away but I'd be keen to see more pictures, especially the wing pattern and the calls could be useful too - if makes any. Worth keeping an eye on I think.

Ian

[bradley_birdsnz]

Here are some more images from last night including the teal that the male chestnut mated with.

[Ian Southey]

Thanks Bradley. That's the darkest teal underwing I've ever seen and I have no idea what that means but the bird on the water looks more like a Chestnut Teal and less like a hybrid.

Ian