New Bird for Montana

On March 6th Jim and Lark Greaves stopped along the Bull River in northwestern Montana and took a few photos of the Greater Scaup, Redheads, and Ring-necked Ducks. That night while reviewing his photos Jim noticed that one of the "scaup" looked different and thought it might be a Tufted Duck. It was. The next day a number of birders made their way to the spot and found this distinctive looking bird, Montana's first documented Tufted Duck (pending acceptance from the Montana Bird Records Committee).


Tufted Duck - photo by Dan Casey (thanks Dan).

This species was ranked as the 2nd species to be found next in Montana in a 2003 exercises Dan Casey pulled together with input from a number of birders familiar with birds on the state. Number one was the Lesser Black-backed Gull which still has yet to be definitively documented in the state.