[mcrosbie]

Common Goldeneye seen south of Campbell River, BC.

A male common goldeneye duck. by mcrosbie, on Flickr

[FYLegend]

Nice shot, that appears to be a young Barrow's Goldeneye, not a Common Goldeneye.

[MDB8]

Check this image from my Flickr account of a group of Barrow's Goldeneyes.





On my monitor your photo appears over-exposed. Often reflections on water disturb the auto-exposure systems in cameras. I.e., you have a dark subject sitting on a bright background.

I always use manual exposure.

[Longbeak]

Brilliant pictures perfect timing!!

[mcrosbie]

Barrow's Goldeneye was my choice, but other birders seemed to think it as a Common Goldeneye. I will re-read your post and look more closely at your photos. For me, the jury is still out on this, but that could change soon. I have four reference books for birds of the Western North America as well as a BC Birder's book and a Vancouver area book.And, of course plenty of online resources for birding.

[MDB8]

I looked more closesly at your photo and it does appear to be a Common Goldeneye. Certainly in the Lower Manland, Common Goldeneyes are much more "common". Not sure about other locations.

The juveniles of both species are similar, but the bill of the Barrow's is shorter and the head angle is steeper. The bird in your photo looks to have a longer bill than seen iin my photo and the angle from the head to the bill is steeper in my photo.

Of course the head marking on the adult males is a key identifier, but I also like the wing colouration. White-on-black versus Black-on-white.

[Robert]

Nice.

I've seen them at the door in Campbell River.

If you haven't been there, try the mouth of the Oyster River.

[nealdoan]

Good for you!