Aythya americana x marila
Status: Accidental in fall.
Taxonomy: Redhead is known to have hybridized with several North American Aythya in the wild, Canvasback, Lesser Scaup, Greater Scaup, and Ring-necked Duck (Woodin and Michot 2020).
Record: One was identified as this hybrid and photographed at Lake Ogallala, Keith Co 18 Nov 2024 (Mlodinow, eBird.org). The observer’s notes read: Huge surprise!! Male in formative plumage. For obvious reasons, when I first saw this bird, I assumed that it was a Greater Scaup. As I looked back through the flock more closely, I came across it again, and it had a Redhead-like gestalt, more so than I am used to in GRSC. The bird had vermiculated gray feathers coming in on the scapulars, unlike REDH. The bill, was thinner (vertically) and not as spatulate as that of a GRSC, and the combination of that bill and the headshape was somewhat REDH-like. It was also a tad bigger than the female REDH it spent most of its time nearest to. The black on the bill, hard to see in the photos, was more extensive than is normal for GRSC (even males in formative plumage). Looking at the photos, the bird has black around the nostrils, a mark common in REDH, but seemingly absent in GRSC (based on review of ~1000 Macaulay photos. Finally, for an amazing comparison of REDH and GRSC bills, see https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/612290853 — this should allow one to visualize what I was trying to describe about the bill shape, which seems quite intermediate to me.
Comments: There are 10-15 instances of this hybrid combination scattered across North America, mostly in the Great Lakes area; this Nebraska record and a two for eastern Colorado are the only ones for the Great Plains (eBird.org, accessed Jan 2025).
Literature Cited
Woodin, M. C. and T. C. Michot (2020). Redhead (Aythya americana), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.redhea.01
Recommended Citation
Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 2025. Redhead x Greater Scaup (hybrid) (Aythya americana x Aythya marila). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org
Updated 5 Jan 2025