Pochard-(Goldeneye Head Colour Issue)-Iridescence

["Tim Murphy" <>]

The two Goldeneyes had very different head shape. Barrow's head was flatter and more pointed to the rear as well as having a white crescent in front of the eye, rather that a circle.. I found those much better field marks. After you had found a possible Barrow's the head color, if it could be seen - and the light was often too bad-  was a nice clincher. They are not too difficult for anyone with reasonable experience and I normally saw at least one a year when I lived in Western Canada.

 

The Pochard is much more difficult but most observers agree on a Greenish head color - I doubt if they all saw it in the same light..

 

Rgds Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: [On Behalf Of Kevin Vang
Sent: Wednesday, 14 July 2004 12:20 PM
To:
Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] Pochard-(Goldeneye Head Colour Issue)-Iridescence

Dear Group

Growing up in Northern Scandinavia, we always had this problem of the head colour of Goldeneyes.  The Barrow?s Goldeneye commonly has a ?purple head? and the Common Goldeneye commonly has a ?green head?.  However, depending on how the angle of sunlight hit the head, the iridescence off feathers would yield the exact opposite colour.  This always results in the over-reporting of Common Goldeneyes in Lappland and of Barrow?s Goldenhead?s in more southern climes.

Visit the following website to see the same Common Goldeneye with what is obviously two completely different head colours.

www.schmoker.org/BirdPics/BAGO_COGO.html