Blue Ducks in Wellington?

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Oscar Thomas
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Re: Blue Ducks in Wellington?

Postby Oscar Thomas » Sun Nov 13, 2022 9:22 pm

Byrd wrote:Do you have links to these two checklists with Blue Ducks?

There are all sorts of dodgy species listed under Zealandia on ebird, including things like Brown Quail, Spotted Dove, Golden Pheasant, Wild Turkey, and Tomtit. Blue Duck seems like one of the dodgiest.


They are checklists from a visiting American birder:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S122108053
https://ebird.org/checklist/S122330662

Tomtits do actually turn up occasionally: https://ebird.org/checklist/S77210048
AlfieB77
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Joined: Sat Oct 08, 2022 5:39 pm
Location: Wellington, New Zealand

Re: Blue Ducks in Wellington?

Postby AlfieB77 » Sun Nov 13, 2022 9:42 pm

131 birds on my NZ life list, latest bird Cattle Egret
Byrd
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Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 12:53 pm
Location: Wellington

Re: Blue Ducks in Wellington?

Postby Byrd » Sun Nov 13, 2022 10:30 pm

Oscar Thomas wrote:
Byrd wrote:Do you have links to these two checklists with Blue Ducks?

There are all sorts of dodgy species listed under Zealandia on ebird, including things like Brown Quail, Spotted Dove, Golden Pheasant, Wild Turkey, and Tomtit. Blue Duck seems like one of the dodgiest.


They are checklists from a visiting American birder:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S122108053
https://ebird.org/checklist/S122330662

Tomtits do actually turn up occasionally: https://ebird.org/checklist/S77210048

I agree with you that Scaup seems like the obvious conclusion for those records.

Surprised at the Tomtit! Without the photo I would have suspected a misidentification.
Jan
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Location: Christchurch

Re: Blue Ducks in Wellington?

Postby Jan » Mon Nov 14, 2022 8:16 am

Sorry for misremembering Blue Duck at Zealandia. Most likely it was Brown Teal being released there that I remember. Some people do assert that Whio may once have had a much wider range that included lowland rivers and they are/were kept at Willowbank Reserve in Chch in aerated ponds. Eggs were hatched and birds returned to Westland rivers. Another place near the Ashburton River also had them in lowland ponds.
Jim_j
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Re: Blue Ducks in Wellington?

Postby Jim_j » Mon Nov 14, 2022 11:23 am

Quite right Jan - they were definitely in lowland rivers and they also make use of side-streams - Fiends of Flora (Nelson) where they were re-introduced to Flora stream found them in smaller side-streams while doing surveys.
But the streams in Zealandia are very small - and even if there was enough food for them to survive I doubt they would prosper.

Cheers
Jim
john b
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Re: Blue Ducks in Wellington?

Postby john b » Mon Nov 14, 2022 7:51 pm

I once had a report of a blue duck living on a farm pond in under the Ruahine ranges. It was within probably 10 km of a known population but I didn't take it seriously. Some time later I was up on the farm and there it was and there it stayed for at least six months even though there was a suitable river within a few hundred metres

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