Cinnamon Teal or cinnamon teal in the east?

**UPDATE 30 September 2020**

I added a few new photos:

6a - photo of the Toronto bird flapping which confirms it as an adult male

19-21 - three photos of a different bird at Forest (Lambton Co.)

Introduction

Last Saturday, while conducting our Great Canadian Birdathon (still looking for donations - we've already raised over $10,000 for bird conservation!) we came across a distinctly "cinnamon" teal just outside of Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario. We quickly got the word out and subsequently lots of people had a chance to look for it. Since then I've been trying to figure out whether it was indeed a Cinnamon Teal or maybe just a cinnamon teal. This post is an attempt to assemble all the information I have along with photos from a variety of people (thanks to them all for sharing!).

I'll post a bit of back-story, then photos of some different birds that have been seen in Ontario this fall, followed by some discussion. Please leave comments here or if you're on Facebook on this thread at Advanced Bird ID.

Cinnamon Teal status in Ontario

Cinnamon Teal is a very rare bird in Ontario. Prior to 2020 there were 19 records accepted by the OBRC dating back to 1983. Five of those come from northwestern Ontario (Rainy River and Thunder Bay Districts) and the rest are from southern Ontario. The seasonal distribution (based on first observation) is:

Spring (18 April-11 June) plus an outlier of 4 March - 13 records

Fall (17 November-8 December) - 2 records

Summering records (4 records)

1. 28 May-9 July 1983 (pair, nest with eggs)
2. 23 June-21 July (pair, but the female died)
3. 1 July
4. 27 May-23 June

In my opinion, there is a huge gap in records in August-September (no records!) when they are exiting the northern breeding grounds. This is also the time of year when southern Ontario sees by far the biggest concentrations of Blue-winged Teal. Blue-winged Teal is a former common breeder in Ontario but has declined significantly to the point it barely breeds in most parts of the province and I assume at least some of the flush of birds we see here in August and September come from the west. 

This gap in records is evident not just in Ontario, but throughout the east.

So why the gap in records? It must be an issue with identification. Females are much harder to separate from Blue-winged Teal (the only records in Ontario of females are of birds paired with basic-plumage ("breeding plumage") males). In August to September, male Cinnamon Teal will be in alternate plumage ("non-breeding" or "eclipse" plumage) so much harder to identify.

Fall 2020 reports

Toronto - August 31, 2020

The story starts at the end of August when Paul Prior found a similar bird in Toronto. He posted it along with photos as a possible Cinnamon Teal and Ron Pittaway sent photos to Peter Pyle in California. Peter replied that it looked fine for Cinnamon Teal and that the rusty breast is typical of adult females in alternate (eclipse) plumage and rules out  Blue-winged Teal. I can't speak for other birders, but I saw  those photos and thought that it really stuck out and gave me a search image to look for. Here are some of Paul Prior's photos taken August 31, 2020:

1. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

2. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

3. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

4. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

5. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

6. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

6a. "cinnamon" teal at Toronto, August 31, 2020. Photo by Paul Prior.

Outside of Rondeau Provincial Park (Chatham-Kent): September 19, 2020+

With the search image of a "BWTE with rusty tones" in mind, we (Ken Burrell, Mike Burrell, and Jim Burrel) found this bird on September 19, 2020. We couldn't manage good photos on the day we found it, but here are the best from subsequent days. We were also somewhat rushed as we were conducting a big day raising money for bird conservation. In the field, this bird stuck out as having really reddish tones concentrated in the breast, but extending down the flanks and into the undertail. We discussed the bill in the field as being slightly larger than the nearby Blue-winged Teal but not obviously massive. On September 20, 2020 a second bird was noted with the first as also having a reddish breast, but not as extensive reddish elsewhere on the body.

I sent some of these photos (of "both" birds) to Peter Pyle and Alvao Jaramillo for their opinion. Alvaro thought the first could be a Cinnamon Teal but had reservations about it, particularly the bill (I'm paraphrasing) but felt the second bird was more likely a rusty looking Blue-winged Teal.

Peter at first thought the more rusty bird looked fine for an adult male Cinnamon Teal (aged by evenly-shaped back feathers) and the rusty feathers could be left over from basic (breeding) plumage in spring. The second bird he thought also looked OK for an eclipse adult male (sexed based on large bill). After some back and forth with him where I asked about certain features (more on that below) he agreed that some things were inconsistent with a pure Cinnamon Teal. Note that as he pointed out it was hard to be sure which photos were of which bird. 

7. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 20, 2020. Photo by Mourad Jabra

8. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 20, 2020. Photo by Mourad Jabra

9. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 20, 2020. Photo by Mourad Jabra

10. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 20, 2020. Photo by Mourad Jabra

11. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 20, 2020. Photo by Mourad Jabra

12. "cinnamon" teal (note second bird) at Chatham-Kent, September 20, 2020. Photo by Mourad Jabra

13. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 22, 2020. Photo by Garry Sadler

14. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 22, 2020. Photo by Garry Sadler

15. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 23, 2020. Photo by Denise Dykema

16. "cinnamon" teal at Chatham-Kent, September 23, 2020. Photo by Denise Dykema

It should be noted that because there are at least two birds there with rusty breasts, I can't be totally sure all photos are of the same individual and I haven't been back to the site to make additional observations.

Forest (Lambton County) 

James Holdsworth, with the search image in mind, then found another teal with "cinnamon" colouring, this past week, this time at Forest Sewage Lagoons in Lambton and suggested that all these "cinnamon" teals were oddly-coloured Blue-winged Teal.

17. "cinnamon" teal at Lambton Co., September 24, 2020. Photo by James Holdsworth

18. "cinnamon" teal at Lambton Co., September 24, 2020. Photo by James Holdsworth

19. "cinnamon" teal (different from 17-18) at Lambton Co., September 24, 2020. Photo by Mark Buchanan

20. "cinnamon" teal (different from 17-18) at Lambton Co., September 24, 2020. Photo by Mark Buchanan

21. "cinnamon" teal (different from 17-18) at Lambton Co., September 24, 2020. Photo by Mark Buchanan

Discussion

So we're left with an unexpected flush of "cinnamon" teal associating with Blue-winged Teal right in the time of year when we could predict Cinnamon Teal should show up. But three records of four individuals seems pretty unlikely...

Some photos of clear-cut September US Cinnamon Teal from within their range:

Males

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/26555933

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/265491901

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/265414511

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/265235801

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/263264641

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/262197541

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/262141621 (full "eclipse")

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/179360691 (I think it's a male)

Females

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/265001021 (pair)

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/263291631

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/262583831

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/262064331

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/261703271

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/261419721

Plumage

Those rusty feathers are pretty extreme, especially on the Lambton and Chatham-Kent birds. Could it be staining? If not, it's hard to imagine a Blue-winged Teal showing that much rufous feathering left over from basic (breeding) plumage. And it's too early for them to be molting really - the only advanced in molt September bird I could find online was this one :)

Facial pattern

The facial pattern looks pretty bold to me, especially on the Lambton bird. The Chatham-Kent bird(s) is perhaps slightly more muted and the Toronto bird is best. But I don't think any of them are "perfect" for Cinnamon Teal; all show some pale at the base of the bill and a fairly pronounced eye stripe.

Sex

I haven't seen them, but apparently "flapping" photos exist of the Toronto bird to identify it as a male (as per Paul Prior). For the Chatham-Kent bird, the one in flight sure looks like a young female wing pattern, though I could be mistaken. I'm not sure about the Lambton bird.

Age

Age is tricky to assign with these photos. The only bird that has really good photos to see feather detail are some of the shots of the Chatham-Kent bird(s) but there is the caveat that we could be looking at different individuals in different photos. Peter Pyle aged the bird in photo 10 as an adult, possibly second year bird. The flight shots (15/16) seem to indicate a hatch year bird.

Eye colour

Adult male Cinnamon Teals should show an orange/red eye. It's surprisingly obvious. Some birds apparently can show a brownish eye in the summer but in my relatively quick search of the Macaulay Library I didn't see any obvious males with brownish eyes. Here's a "typical" male in September...I am confident that all of the birds here have brownish eyes. That's no big deal if we're dealing with females or hatch year birds, but I think it is a pretty big red flag if we're talking adult males.

Bill

Alvaro put it really well in his email to me, "I always joke that we have Blue-wing, and then the greater and lesser shoveler". And that bares out pretty well looking at photos, Cinnamon Teal has a pretty honkin' bill. Measurements given show a pretty big overlap and I wonder if the difference might be less on females or young birds, but to me none of these birds jump out as having a huge bill even with direct comparisons with Blue-winged Teal. They may be on the biggish end for Blue-winged Teal but not overly huge. However, scrolling through images on Macaulay Library you can find quite a range of variation in this feature in both species. 

Conclusion

Are Cinnamon Teal really this hard to pick out? Or are we just trying a bit hard here? Could these all be colour-stained Blue-winged Teal? Hybrids? The more I look at photos of Cinnamon Teal I wonder if the overall plumage colour is just a red herring! What does a hatch-year male Cinnamon Teal look like in September?

The whole point of writing this was to solicit opinions from people with experience separating the two...so, please leave your comments below or on the Advanced Bird ID thread.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Alvaro Jaramillo and Peter Pyle for really quick and thoughtful responses to my initial and follow-up questions. Thanks to Paul Prior, Mourad Jabra, Garry Sadler, Denise Dykema, and James Holdsworth for allowing me to post their photos here. Steve Charbonneau helped round up the photos. And thanks to all the interesting discussion on these birds I've already read - look forward to reading more!

What do Long-tailed Jaegers eat in Ontario? A week full of surprises

It was a very exciting week for me with all sorts of pleasant surprises wherever I went.

To start things off, on Sunday, Ken, my Dad and I were headed down to Holiday Beach IBA for the annual Hawk Festival. We left Waterloo in the dark but hadn't even made it to the 401 when we had our first surprise of the day. Just as we were getting off Hwy 8 I noticed a raptor sitting on a light post. Without thinking much I said "hey there's a red-tail". But as I looked at the bird a bit longer I realized that's not what it was. I pulled onto the shoulder of the ramp and put my bins on it and was surprised to see this:

Yep, a Snowy Owl - on September 13! I think it is more likely that this is a lingering bird from the big irruption last winter rather than an early fall migrant. We don't expect them until November at the earliest. Last year there were a couple of lingering Snowy Owls in Hamilton and on Amherst Island through the summer, so it does happen but it sure is a surprise to see!

With our spirits high from our surprising find we continued towards Holiday Beach. Before arriving we knew we were in for a good hawk flight as the conditions were perfect (clear with a brisk NW wind) and we were already seeing Sharp-shinned Hawks flying over the fields we were passing. We weren't the only ones thinking the same thing as the turnout was excellent:

And here's what everyone was watching:

A kettle of Broad-winged Hawks

That's right, nice big kettles of Broad-winged Hawks. They really got going at about 11 am and were still going strong when we left at 2. In any given year 2-6% of the world population of Broad-winged Hawks funnels through Holiday Beach, and usually a big chunk of those birds pass through in a few key days. The day's tally was over 7000, or about .5% of the world population! Needless to say we weren't disappointed, or even that surprised since the conditions were perfect. What was a surprise though was a dark morph Broad-winged Hawk that we saw go over with a group of "normal" (light morph) broad-wings in the afternoon. That was my first ever and Ken's second.

Our highlight, however happened just before noon. I was waiting by the classroom to get organized for a presentation I was to give when Jeremy Bensette and Emma Buck came walking over. As we were chatting I looked up to see a line of broad-wings passing overhead through a gap in the trees. I lucked out because as I put my binoculars up I noticed a heavily marked, slightly larger, and longer wings buteo overhead - "I've got a Swainson's Hawk!". Jeremy got it right away and even snapped a couple photos. It was an Ontario bird for both of us. I phoned Ken since he was on the tower and I wanted to make sure they got the bird too - he answered the phone with "juvenile light or intermediate morph!" then hung up. Pretty sweet!

And we had one more surprise fly over that day from the tower:

American White Pelican

That was Sunday. Through the week I was busy with some great staff meetings at Bird Studies Canada's headquarters in Port Rowan. A Say's Phoebe was found near Rondeau but a chase was not in the cards for me.

But my biggest surprise came yesterday, when I was at Erica's childhood home for some birthday parties. I checked my email in the morning and saw that Parasitic Jaeger had been found feeding in a field just 10 minutes to the north. I filed the information away thinking I'd go have a look later in the day. My phone promptly died so I didn't think too much more about it. Then, Erica's brother texted her to say he had spotted a crowd of birders checking something out at the spot so Erica and I went for a drive. When we got there we found out that it was actually a Long-tailed Jaeger - much rarer, and probably a first county record. At first it was a bit distant but eventually it started flying around feeding around the field, sometimes flying within 5 metres of us. At one point it landed, caught and ate a worm about 10 metres away from us. Absolutely amazing views of a bird that I have only ever seen way out on Lake Ontario off of Hamilton.

Now that's a sweet yard bird!

Can't be too many shots of this species with a silo in the back

Yes, that's a worm!

Needless to say, before the week started if you had told me I'd see a Snowy Owl, Swainson's Hawk, dark morph Broad-winged Hawk, and a worm-eating Long-tailed Jaeger I would have asked you if you'd hit your head!

Kingston Lark Sparrow

On this warm spring evening Erica and I were pulling in to our local mini putt establishment when I got a text message from Mark Read that read "Just found a Lark Sparrow at Lemoine Point.". Yep, he didn't even include an exclamation mark. So, with less than an hour of daylight left, we headed for Lemoine Point.

As we arrived we could see Mark and fellow Kingston birder James Barber up ahead on the path, faithfully keeping an eye on the prize:

So there it was. We all enjoyed this rare bird from the mid-west before it eventually flew into some nearby pines to hopefully spend the night.

As mentioned above, Lark Sparrow is primarily a bird of the central US, regularly reaching into Canada in southern BC and the southern prairies. It is also rare but regular in southern Ontario with up to about 5 records per year. It is a species that could be expected here more often in years of extreme drought in the core of its range, like this year. This must be one of the earliest spring arrivals of this species in Ontario - the only earlier date I could find was one on 10 April 2010 from Pelee Island - most records fall in late April or early May.

The great thing about seeing this bird was that it meant two rare birds in Frontenac County in two days after Mark and I found this wayward White-crowned Pigeon on Wolfe Island yesterday. 

Amherst Island delights

This morning Kyle Blaney and Brad Hamilton found an American Avocet in the Ducks Unlimited Pond on the Martin Edwards Reserve (Amherst Island) so when we got word of it we headed down for the ferry. Erica and I met up with Mark on the 11:30 ferry and started the 20 minute boat ride from Millhaven to Stella. The ferry crossing at this time of year is a great way to see Common Loons up close as we had 15 on the way over and 14 on the way back (and you can get many more than that). They often are quite close to the ferry, offering great looks:

Once we got across it was straight to the Martin Edwards Reserve - this property is owned by the Kingston Field Naturalists and is known by many as simply the "KFN Property". It should be noted that, for liability reasons, you must be a member of the KFN, or accompanied by one, to enter the property. As soon as we got to the pond we could see our prize waiting for us, a beautiful American Avocet!

After enjoying very nice scope views of this bird we headed out further to the end of the reserve where we were able to pick up a nice assortment of ducks including a relatively rare for the area Black Scoter. Also present was a Snowy Owl, presumably the same bird that has been seen sporadically at least since late summer.

On the way out we kept moving to stay warm with the brisk south wind in our face but we did stop long enough to enjoy some Snow Buntings on the beach:

Fall counts

Several clubs across Ontario host fall roundups in their respective bird study areas and as far as I know, these all happen the first weekend of November. I know Hamilton has a big one (I have participated many times) and so does Ottawa, Thunder Bay, and Kingston. This year I did the Kingston count for the first time.

The Kingston count covers the Kingston study area (see the Ontario Birding areas page for map) and unlike the Hamilton count that I have helped with in the past, the Kingston count covers a 24-hour period overlapping two days, starting at 3pm on Saturday and finishing 3pm on Sunday. So yesterday I met up with Mark and James and we headed for Prince Edward Point. We decided we'd spend the 3 hours of daylight on Saturday there to get our start. We weren't disappointed as within a few minutes of the clock hitting 3pm we had our first good scores:

Rough-legged Hawk

Red-necked Grebe

The Red-necked Grebe was the only one of any groups and not many people had Rough-legged Hawk either. A little further on and we had another raptors coming in low...an adult Golden Eagle!

Golden Eagle

We got another (this time a young bird) a few minutes later so were quite pleased with ourselves! It wasn't much after that that we picked up a flock of Cedar Waxwings, our only Ruby-crowned Kinglet, White-crowned Sparrows, and Brown Creeper. Just past the bird observatory we managed to get all three scoters before it got too dark to see much. On the way back home we made a few stops for owls but the howling wind didn't help much, however we still managed to get one Barred Owl and best of all a flyover nocturnal migrant Swainson's Thrush!

Saturday morning we caught the first ferry to Amherst Island and quickly saw lots of loons on the water and started added to our 51 species from the previous day. Amherst was good to us with the best bird being a Vesper Sparrow that flushed from the road and perched long enough for James to grab a photo. We were off the island by 10 and headed for Morvin Creek to look for shorebirds (picked up both yellowlegs) and on the way back east from there we stumbled on our best bird of the day, a Cattle Egret!!

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret and cow

From there we picked up a ton of new ducks (check out lists from Cataraqui Bay, Marshlands, and the Montreal Street apartments) but we were running out of time. We added one last species, Wild Turkey, with ten minutes left to round out our list of 88 species, not a bad 24 hours of birding in November! We did well but had some big misses: all Accipiters and falcons, Belted Kingfisher, Hermit Thrush, Wood Duck, Killdeer, and of course more than I can list here :)

Essex county rarities

I had a presentation as part of Festival of Hawks at Holiday Beach Important Bird Area today, so Ken came with me and we did some birding before and after. We started the day with the pair of Eurasian Collared-Doves on the east side of Leamington. These birds have been around for a couple weeks now (and quite possibly in the area for the past year+) and it seems like just a matter of time until they produce Ontario's first nesting of this species as it continues its spread north. I think that if you asked most birders ten years ago, they would have guessed they'd be a much more common species in Ontario by now. We saw the birds a little east of Gore Hill Public School, at Mersea Road 12, and then watched them fly further southeast to the small silo.

From there, we headed for Point Pelee (another globally significant Important Bird Area) and walked out to the tip. The winds were quite strong from the northwest, really whipping the lake up. We spent some time at the tip keeping an eye on the water for anything interesting flying by but also kept pretty busy with hawks overhead and passerines flitting in the bushes. Nothing too unusual but some Black Terns were getting later. Here's our full checklist.

From Pelee we made our way to Holiday Beach, where we got to witness a decent hawk flight, lots of warblers, and best of all a flock of 15 American White Pelicans overhead (left my camera in the car). It was a great few hours enjoying the birds and festivities. Here's our full checklist. The Festival of Hawks continues tomorrow and again next weekend and is definitely worth checking out!

After leaving Holiday Beach we checked a few adjacent areas hoping for one of the at least four Snowy Egrets that have been around. We finally got lucky with one where Big Creek crosses Highway 20:

These photos don't show it, but Snowy Egret have bright yellow feet. Here's a photo I took in Florida that shows that feature well (and shows the normally hidden white leg):

All in all, it was a great day!