[mcrosbie]

I am not sure about this duck. I saw it south of Campbell River, BC on the ocean. My educated guess is Common or Barrow's Goldeneye.

Unidentified duck0166 by mcrosbie, on Flickr

[KenW]

I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest blue winged teal. hard to tell, but it looks like the white crescent behind the bill that is typical of BWTE. The rest of the coloration is a bit off though. a hybrid? It just doesn't look goldeneye-ish to me.

A better birder than me will likely prove me wrong

[mcrosbie]

This bird was swimming in salt water. It seems to be on its own. One other birder suggested as a comment on my Flicker post of this photo that it was a Common Goldeneye. It has the gold-coloured eye. It has the white patch just behind the black beak. It was mostly black plummage and has a few white spots on top of it. It appears to have pink or red legs.

[rawalker]

Definitely a goldeneye. Its head shape looks like common to me so I would go with 1st winter male common goldeneye.

[therobwalker]

Tough one - I would tend to agree with Randy though.

[Larry Cowan]

I would agree with a first winter Common Goldeneye. Pretty good match to the illustration in Sibley's.

[mcrosbie]

Thanks you all for your feedback. I will go with Common Goldeneye.

[FYLegend]

I'm going with Barrow's. The white area appears crescent shaped like a Barrow's and is longer than it would be in a Common.