http://waarneming.nl/foto_details.php?id=24279 (http://waarneming.nl/foto_details.php?id=24279)
from this photo hybrids Tadorna tadorna x Tadorna ferruginea are not excluded
The "waarnemer" also stated in the comment section that the birds are most possibly hybrids.
Yes, I understood that it is thought to be a possible hybrid, but what i wanted to say was:
I think that alone from this photo it could well be hybrids between tadorna and ferruginea, no need to involve tadornoides
compare with this tadorna x ferruginea hybrid:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martynf65/240...ool-hybridbirds (http://www.flickr.com/photos/martynf65/2400819064/in/pool-hybridbirds)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martynf65/240...ool-hybridbirds (http://www.flickr.com/photos/martynf65/2400819688/in/pool-hybridbirds)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martynf65/240...ool-hybridbirds (http://www.flickr.com/photos/martynf65/2400819416/in/pool-hybridbirds)
sorry if I wasn´t clear before.
I think you might be right. Common shelduck is a common duck species (as its name says ;) ) and the Ruddy shelduck is getting more common as well, so the chance they would hybridize is much bigger than a hybrid with the Australian shelduck involved.
Thanks Jörn, it is now more clear ;)
In that particular area Ruddy Shelducks are more common than in other parts of Holland. Strange that these hybrids look so much like the tadornoides!
I don´t know if this fits with experience of others , but in my experience there is this:
In most T. tadorna x ferruginea, from breast along the flanks the colour gets lighter towards the rear end of the flanks (Breast being darkest).
In T. tadornoides the breast ist lighest (and at least in some hybrids of Tadoernoides this is similar).
(I know that different colours are involved from breast to rear flanks) I just comment on how light/ or dark colour is)