This week’s Bird of the Week, compliments of the Weminuche Audubon Society and Audubon Rockies, is the hooded merganser.
This is another of our winter ducks, not seen often or in high numbers, but definitely commanding a second look when it is. On a male in breeding plumage, the black hood/crest with large white patches can be raised or lowered, changing the shape of his head and giving it an oversized appearance. During courtship, the male’s crest figures prominently in his display of elaborate head movements, wing flapping, rearing back in the water and giving a frog-like croak.
Females, in browns and grays, are not as flamboyant, but still sport a perky cinnamon-colored crest. Both sexes are small, diving ducks who are expert fishers but also eat aquatic insects, small frogs and tadpoles, plant material, and crustaceans. A narrow, serrated bill allows this duck to hold onto slippery prey.
Hooded mergansers locate prey underwater using eyes specially adapted to allow them to change their refractive properties for accurate vision both above and below water. Clear nictitating membranes act like goggles to protect their eyes when they are submerged.
Hooded mergansers breed in forested wetlands in the eastern half of North America and in the Pacific Northwest. They are cavity nesters who prefer trees with holes over or close to water. It’s not easy for a female duck to fly up, stop abruptly and grab the edge of the hole with webbed feet, then plunge inside. She typically lays nine to 11 eggs which will all hatch about the same time.
Usually within 24 hours of hatching all of the downy young climb up to the nest hole using tiny claws on their feet and jump to the ground or water below. Although the female stays with her young for several weeks, they forage for themselves and are left to live on their own even before they can fly.
Be on the lookout for these eye-catching birds on the river or on local lakes before they leave to breed by May.
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