Mergansers on Golden Pond

by Jennie Breeze

Title

Mergansers on Golden Pond

Artist

Jennie Breeze

Medium

Photograph - Original Img_8501

Description

The Hooded Merganser is the smallest of the three species of mergansers, also known as saw-bills or fish-ducks, found in North America. All mergansers have slender elongated serrated bills tipped with a hooked nail. These bills are ideally suited for capturing and controlling the slippery fish that make up a large part of their diet. They are extremely agile swimmers and divers but awkward on land because their legs are set well back on their bodies. Hooded Mergansers are highly sexually dimorphic. Both sexes have a bushy erectile crest of head feathers which forms the distinctive "hood". In breeding males this hood has a large central white patch boldly bordered in black. When the hood is down, the visible white is reduced to a narrow band trailing back from the bright yellow eye. Females and non-breeding males have brown hoods that match the rest of their plumage. The breeding male has a black face, neck and back. The breast and underparts are bright white. Two bold black lines running down the side of the bird separate the white of the breast from the finely vermiculated rufous flanks. The upperparts of the wings are blackish with white striping on the flight feathers. The underparts of the wings are light grey to nearly white.

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January 4th, 2016

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