Favoritos de cobaltducks

~13.5mm long
Found in Senna artemisioides.
Found 4, 2 in each bush, but only managed to capture one from each.
They quickly dropped off onto the ground when felt threatened.
Also seems to have a metalic blue body.
www.ellura.info/Blattodea-Coleoptera-Hemiptera.html#Melobasis-sp

She started building this nest started within 2 weeks of the 1st 2 fledglings leaving the 1st nest in the neighbors yard.
this post for the Dad.
posts for the young https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/193942985
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/193943006
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/193943065
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/194173121
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/194497466
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/194497489
and for the female
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195124095

Record is for the duck being held by the woman in the black jumper. This duck was released immediately after the comparison photos were taken.

The other two are PBD x mallard hybrids, caught as part of dumped domestic mallard removal efforts by the Pacific Black Duck Conservation Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pacificblackduckconservationgroup

The first photo's hybrid has a green/yellow bill (harder to see in this photo), patchy facial markings, and legs are a little bit too orange. This one also had white trims above the speculum.

The female in the second and third photos:
Mainly the lower face stripes and cheeks that are different. Both sexes should look like the pure one, a thinner stripe, and Cleary defined cream face patches. The hybrid’s cheek cuts into the cream patch while the pure’s continues to the back of the neck. The hybrid's eye stripe doesn’t surround the eye, which we see a lot with hybrid ducklings. Her crown was a bit too streaked for a female.

Hybrids uploaded separately:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/190350029
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/190350244

This tiny fella was observed at the top of a 5mm diameter bamboo stick. (The cut section is also exactly 5mm down from the top).
I observed the spider lifting one of its 3rd pair of legs (rhs) in the air and wave it around once. It was then I went & grabbed the camera. Sadly he refused to face the camera lens head-on. 😔 I thanked him for his time anyway.