Article on possible hybrid northern & Australasian shoveler

[Alan Tennyson]

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/An ... NDIA-1.pdf

[AngryBird45]

Did you get any photos of it?

[RussCannings]

Here's a thread link to a similar discussion about NZ hybrid candidates.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11052&p=48576&hilit=hakanoa#p48576

With DNA/parentage knowledge it obviously involves some guesswork. AN interesting question that I'm not sure is well answered is how much individual variation can occur within 'pure' populations. Another tricky issue is hybridism with other species that can throw up superficially similar intermediate plumages (For example the multigenerational descendant of a Northern Shoveler x Blue-winged Teal backcross).

With all these drakes around NZ for a while, one would expect some hybrids about.

Russ

[Oscar Thomas]

Here is a cruddy photo of another hybrid candidate at Pegasus Wetlands in Christchurch in Aug 2022, where a Northern Shoveler has been seen on and off since May 2020. That might be enough time for some interspecies action? The actual Northern Shoveler pops up in the 2nd pic too.

(1.08 MiB) Viewed 2021 times

(422.87 KiB) Viewed 2021 times

[Jake]

^ seems perfectly intermediate; what's the other option? Two N Shovelers that've found eachother - one in a (relative) delayed eclipse? I suppose you could literally use ebird data to find the probability of two N Shovelers meeting eachother in NZ. Or it's probably more feasible to try follow this bird: see if this is it's peak breeding plumage

[RussCannings]

A few years ago there were two drake Northern Shovelers together at Miranda (for around a month). Not sure if there have been multiples elsewhere? Given there are only a few spots where shoveler occur in large concentrations (ie 300+ at a time), it probably wouldn't be too crazy for Northerns to find each other... at least when there were a handful floating around).

Russ