Identifying Merganser Ducks

These are large, long-bodied ducks with thin, pointed wings. Their bills are straight and narrow, unlike the wide, flat bill of a “typical” duck. Females have shaggy crests on the backs of their heads.

 

Adult males are crisply patterned with gleaming white bodies and dark, iridescent-green heads for most of the year. The back is black and the bill red. Females and immatures are gray-bodied with a white chest and rusty-cinnamon heads. From late summer to mid-autumn, males wear a nonbreeding plumage that looks very similar to female plumage. In flight, both sexes show large white patches on the upperwings (larger in adult males).

 

Common Mergansers dive underwater to catch fish. Mergansers nest in tree cavities high above the ground. After the chicks leave the nest in summer, the female stays with them as they grow up while males gather in flocks. In winter, mergansers form large flocks on inland reservoirs and rivers. They stay in these tight flocks to feed and court during the cold months. In migration and winter, they mix with other fish-eating, diving ducks.

 

 

Common Merganser

Image provided by IBird

Merganser family corralled for relocation from Higgins Lake 2024
Photo by Mike Purkey

Merganser brood ready for relocation July 2024, Higgins Lake.
Photo by Mike Purkey