Help Me identify a bird

Gaddez

So, I've been seeing a pair of these birds on the Thames river in London Ontario that are somewhat confusing me; They appear to be a pair of ducks that are pretty much all black and maybe a little bigger then a mallard. Ordinarily I would do a google search to try and identify them from a visual recognition guide for ontario water fowl but nothing in there seems to match up, so I'm thinking it might be something from the states that made it's way north.

Sadly I don't have any pictures to use as a reference.

JebusUD

a loon?

Gaddez

No, This one was all black; no patches or shades or such. Also It had a bill and not a beak like a loon or a cormorant. Also didn't seem to have a long neck like a goose if that helps at all.

Nobody

Black Scoter?

JebusUD

American Coot?

Gaddez

I don't think it's either of these; like it absolutely had a bill like a duck as opposed to a beak.

I'm really sorry I'm being vague about this.

bwanie

A very tiny black swan?

BahamutZERO

black swans largely do not exist in the wild in north america

bwanie

I made a silly joke.

But about what you said... they don't? You only get white ones or no swans at all?

Wouldn't say they're common here but i see them often enough.

Ringo

American Black Duck:


Double Crested Cormorant:


White Winged Scooter:


Surf Scooter(s):



Black Scooter:


Western Tanager:



These are all birds that have been photographed in your area on the iNaturalist app/website. (The images here are from Google though)
It's probably not the Western Tanager, but it's cute!

BahamutZERO

bwanie wrote: »

I made a silly joke.

But about what you said... they don't? You only get white ones or no swans at all?

Wouldn't say they're common here but i see them often enough.

I'm just going off what I read on the internet, but yeah black swans don't exist naturally in north america. Wikipedia article says some ponces have tried to introduce them here though so there's probably some small populations. The swan species that live here naturally are the trumpeter swan and the tundra/whistling swan, which are both white.

Fiendishrabbit

...Male surf scoters are just absolutely ridiculous birds. It's like someone took a normal bird and then just decided to attach some kind of bird clown nose.

bwanie

I love the self-conscious look the middle scoot is having there, he looks super embarrassed.

Tastyfish

Fiendishrabbit wrote: »

...Male surf scoters are just absolutely ridiculous birds. It's like someone took a normal bird and then just decided to attach some kind of bird clown nose.

I mean, does that not happen?

This is a male Puffin outside the breeding season. Their fancy beaks do just...fall off.
The rest of the clown makeup is washed off as well until you arrive at "Drab Auk"

Gaddez

So as luck would have it I was able to get some pictures of these birds earlier today:

This is the best one I could get:

Spoilered for big; I know they're not mallards because they're a fair bit bigger (and darker overall), but closer up they seem to have that greenish tint around their head and neck.

Also I have a second picture here with a mallard in the far right for scale reference:

Nobody

Could be either a Cayuga duck, or an escaped Black East Indian duck:

Gaddez

Thanks for the help: looks like it was the Cayuga; can honestly say I'd never even heard of that kind before

bwanie

When you think about how iridescent some birds look even to us, and we suck at color perception compared to birds.

How crazy must birds look to each other?

chromdom

Ok, this going off on a tangent, but I've been thinking about it recently.
You know how dogs and cats and cows and whatnot have stripes and spots and patterns?
So do humans
We just suck at the color perception needed to see them.
But the dogs and cats and cows (and birds!) and can see them! And they don't know that we can't see them!

It blows my mind.

Burtletoy

Dogs don't understand how if you tie a rope to an object, you can move the object by pulling on the rope. Same way they try to walk in a door while holding a stick that's too big. Interconnectedness is outside their range of perception.

Aka dogs don't understand how dog leashes work.

It's a crazy world