[cobirds] Duck Redux (Muscovy today in El Paso County)

Disclaimer: If you don't care about the different designations or flavors of Muscovy Duck,

please go on to the next post.

No big deal, and not to harp on this, but as per my recent note to CObirds

about the different names eBird uses to define the status of any given Muscovy Duck, the 

one that fits best for ALL MUDU's in Colorado is:

Muscovy Duck (Domestic type)

Not

Muscovy Duck (Established Feral), as a duck was reported to eBird today. 

All this may seem like splitting hairs, but names do matter. (If you don't believe me, try calling your father-in-law "Pops" or "Old Man"). 

The trick is to understand that "Established" does NOT mean "Been there for a while, a week, months or years".

That could be called "lingering" or "continuing" or "still there" or "ain't gone" or "one was here last winter too".

Established, in the biologic sense, more or less, at least by my understanding, means:

 "A member of a breeding population in that location for a number of years (ten? per the ABA), 

preferably thriving and expanding and NOT being sustained by releases or escapes. Long-lived species

can take much longer to meet that definition.

Another example would be the colony of Monk Parakeets that nested in Lakewood for a few years, until they died from a cold spell

(which led to SERIOUS rigor mortis,) was correctly NOT added to the CO list. 

Ditto for the Mute Swans that bred at Marston in the 1960s and 70s and seemed to thrive. That species actually made it to the official CO list, 

but was axed when the poor population pooped out.

Follow ups and arcane comments can be made on or off line,

Joe Roller, Denver

PS Don't get me started on the status of California Condors.

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