Anas gracilis

Grey Teal at Dry Plain, NSW

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Identification history

	Anas gracilis	5 Jun 2023	Liam.m
	Anas castanea	5 Jun 2023	AndyRoo

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User's notes

Guesstimate majority of species in the the photo for this sighting look more like Chestnut Teals rather than Grey Teals. Estimate they were about half of the mix of ~45 ducks - 2 species the other being Aust Wood Ducks.

4 comments

Liam.m wrote:

5 Jun 2023

Hi @AndyRoo there are no chestnut teals in this picture, only grey teals, a hoary-headed grebe and wood ducks

MatthewFrawley wrote:

5 Jun 2023

Difficult to be certain but I wouldn't be so sure that these couldn't be female Chestnut Teals.

Liam.m wrote:

5 Jun 2023

You’re right, but I think the chance they’re female chestnuts is pretty slim. They all look pretty good for greys, I think the shadows are just making colours hard to judge

AndyRoo wrote:

8 Jun 2023

Thanks Liam & Matthew. The total number of water birds was in fact at least 48 - count was limited by camera zoom and resulting image resolution - of which I guesstimate about half or just under half were Teals. As I was travelling with others I didn't have time to get closer to take better pics and the zoom on my fixed lens digital camera was operating at its limit. I checked pics for another sighting of a much smaller number of water birds at this location 3 months later in March 2021 (yet to be uploaded to CNM) - the duck "close up" pics at this later sighting are a bit better and the white/light colouring visible on the throats of a couple of the ducks back the ID as Grey Teal and again there was no obvious sign of any male Chestnut Teals. I had wondered about the Hoary Crested Grebe but didn't look closely - I'll enter this separately - looks like there were at least two.

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