What kind of duck is this?

i234.photobucket.com...

I've never seen one exactly like it, and can't find it online anywhere. It reminds me of a wood duck, but still very different.

Me and a friend see it at this pond we've been fishing at a little bit lately, and he's really curious. I say "he" because he seems to bully the other ducks/ducklings in the pond.

He'll paddle up to within 30 feet of us while we're standing around casting, and occasionally go into little bouts of swimming up to where our casts land and swimming like a penguin up to the bank within a few feet of us, swimming around there for a bit, and going back out another ten feet or so before resurfacing.

I'm pretty sure he's just looking for an easy meal, but I've never encountered a duck that acted or looked like this one.

Thanks.






[edit on 13-6-2009 by alaskan]

reply to post by alaskan

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From the photo I'd say it's a Slavonian Grebe. Where are you located?

I might get a clue from your name "alaskan" but didn't want to assume anything. You could be an Alaskan resident in Timbuktu for all I know.

Here are some good images that probably nail it.

stevenround-birdphotography.com...

Never seen one myself but can identify most birds common to the UK and few rarer visitors....keen nature photographer and walker.

[edit on 13-6-2009 by Britguy]

Oh damn, Heihachi Mishima's now a duck!

I'm in fairbanks, alaska, but we see it at a pond in north pole, about 14 miles south.

Thanks very much for the link, it's exactly what I was looking for.

Definately a type of grebe, maybe the "great Crested Grebe". Distributed extremely broadly. Found references from Britian to Slovakia & even in Australia

www.rspb.org.uk...
www.arkive.org...
blx1.bto.org...

Please correct if wrong.

It's definitely the Slavonian Grebe, thanks though.

That is a very...very scary duck. I opened the link and had to close it out immediately haha.

Looks like its eyes are on fire from the OP's picture link i wish we had cool ducks like that down here in Florida but we got gators

I saw a weird looking cat in my driveway, should I take a picture and bring it to ATS? I am wondering because he is a cold-blooded killer that tears the heads off of his prey.

The duck in the OPs linked image is some duck I have seen before, it does not look like a crossbreed. My plucky 2 cents.

You're in Alaska? It's a Horned Grebe. Gnarly-looking suckers.

all i know about this duck is that it lives in belgium too , we have some ponds near our house and in one of them there are like 3 of these ducks