Need help on this pair

[Bill & Jaye]

Today I saw a pair of birds sitting in a tree together.  Looking through binoculars I first thought the one was a duck because of its size.  But neither had duck bills.
One looked like a partridge (by colour)  About the size of a partridge or small duck.  The other (Male?) had a brown colour on lower half, but top half was black with very sharp / distinct white lines on the wings and side of head.  Wish I had a camera with a good lens!
Cant see any suck bird in my books.

Here is hoping!!

[Leslie]

Have you considered a black-crowned night heron?  They're about mallard-sized & do perch in trees.  The immature is brown & the adult is black & white about the face, although not on the wings.
There's a good web site http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide.  (I usually google the name of the bird and choose the Cornell Ornithology... site.)  It's only got 2 pictures of this species, the adult & the immature, & it's possible birds this time of year are experiencing a moult between the two plumages.

[Mark D]

Maybe a pair of Hooded Mergansers?  They seem to fit your description.

Mark

[Halton Hills]

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Spruce or Ruffed Grouse ?

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[Iain]

Sounds like a Wood Duck pair:


NOT MY PHOTO (source: http://www.birddigiscoper.com/blog042306a2.jpg)

[Halton Hills]

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Today I saw a pair of birds sitting in a tree together.......neither had duck bills.

[Iain]

Thanks Halton Hills, but there's a chance that Bill and Jaye didn't get a good look at the bills or were thrown off by the birds being in a tree (unusual for many ducks, not for Wood Ducks of course) or by lighting or shadows.  

Bill comment aside, the description fits Wood Duck perfectly so I'd thought I'd throw it out there.  

Happy Birding
Iain

[Halton Hills]

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I hear ya........it's tough to "guess" in situations like this.....I just wasn't sure if the "bill" part was overlooked.

That's why I was leaning towards a Grouse......based on the limited info that was given.


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[Bill & Jaye]

Thanks to all for the help.
Thanks for posting the great picture Iain.  Going by that, I am pretty sure it WAS a pair of wood ducks.

Thanks also for the suggestion it may be grouse.  We definatly have lots of grouse around here.  But looking at pictures of grouse, I think there was too much black and fine white lines for it to be a grouse.

Naturally, I have not seen them since, and look for them every day.

[angieinto]

What a beautiful shot of the wood ducks! We just got back from a trip to High Park where we saw two pairs today.

[Iain]

Glad you figured it out.  It should be noted that the photo is not mine (I should have been more clear on that in the original post).   I did a quick google search to get a photo of the pair out of the water, obviously for identification purposes.  The link to the source is under the pic.  

Iain