svihla@evax0.eng.fsu.edu (04/07/91)
A while back I posted a query regarding two birds who whizzed over my head while I was canoeing on a stream in Northern Florida. The birds were large, had mottled black and white markings, and had red heads. They flew with their necks extended. I thought, judging from their size, that they must have been turkeys or turkey vultures. I re-encountered these birds this past week-end. They whizzed over my head several times without allowing me a very good look, until I finally came upon one perched in a dead tree overlooking the water. Close examination revealed this bird to be some weird sort of duck. It was huge, for a duck anyway, more the size of a goose, I'd say. It definitely had duck feet, though. Its head was strange looking - bright red and two-tiered - I guess maybe you could say it had a crest. I checked my bird books and nothing remotely close showed up. It's definitely not a moorhen - it's much too large and I've seen enough moorhens to know one when I see it. It's not a vulture, and it's not a turkey, and it doesn't seem to be any species of duck native to the area. WHAT is it, then?
dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu (David Mark) (04/07/91)
In article <1991Apr7.040924.5415@mailer.cc.fsu.edu> svihla@evax0.eng.fsu.edu writes:
= A while back I posted a query regarding two birds who whizzed over my
=head while I was canoeing on a stream in Northern Florida. The birds were
=large, had mottled black and white markings, and had red heads. .....
= ...
= ... Close examination revealed this bird to
=be some weird sort of duck. It was huge, for a duck anyway, more the size
=of a goose, I'd say. It definitely had duck feet, though. Its head
=was strange looking - bright red and two-tiered - I guess maybe you could
=say it had a crest. ...
= ... it doesn't seem to be any species of duck native to
=the area. WHAT is it, then?
Almost certainly they are Muscovy Ducks, Cairina moschata, native to
Mexico but widely 'escaped' in North America. The head is illustrated
in the "Exotics and Escapes" plate (p. 303) in the new eastern Peterson
guide. The whole bird is illustrated in the "Exotic Waterfowl" plate (p. 91)
of the National Geographic guide, and of course in the Mexican guides.
David Mark
dmark@sun.acsu.buffalo.edu