Home (Merganser)
Home  
 
 
Home » Animals » Merganser


 

Merganser

Animals MenhadenMerlin

Merganser
Related Category: Vertebrate Zoology
see duck.
More on Merganser
Duck - common name for wild and domestic waterfowl of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and swans. It is hunted and bred for its meat, eggs, and feathers.

 


Merganser Ducks
Duck Information ... Duck Species ... Photo Gallery
Wild Bird Feeders ... Wild Bird Food / Seed ... Binoculars ... Humming Bird Feeders / Feed ... Bird Houses / Bird Nests ... Woodworking Instructions to Build Bird Houses ...

Mergansers have long, serrated bills. They dive to feed.
The Hooded Merganser sometimes breeds in Florida, nesting in a high tree cavity near water. It may use a nest box.

Merganser americanus Cassin, 1852
The Common Merganser (North American) or Goosander (Eurasian) Mergus merganser is a large duck, of rivers and lakes of forested areas of Europe, northern and central Asia, and North America.

Merganser bones from coastal sand dunes, some of them from the middens of the Maori and the moa-hunters who preceded them, have been identified by Scarlett, at first from South Island coastal deposits at Wairau Bar, Lake Grassmere, Kaikoura, ...

Mergansers can fly at speeds approaching 50 mph.
3.
Mergansers are also able to catch fish by direct underwater pursuit, remaining submerged for up to 2 minutes! They resurface to swallow their prey, turning it around so it is swallowed headfirst.

Mergansers are deep diving carnivores. Watch for them to dive suddenly under the water before surfacing some distance away sometime later. Depending on conditions and depths, these dives will range from a few seconds to about a minute. Brent Johner ...

Merganser americanus (Cass). AMERICAN MERGANSER; GOOSANDER; SHELLDRAKE. Ad.

WHITE MERGANSER.--SMEW, OR WHITE NUN.
[Smew.]
MERGUS ALBELLUS, Linn.
[Mergellus albellus.] ...

Hooded Merganser
Scientific name: Lophodytes cucullatus
Family: Anatidae
Order: Anseriformes ...

Mergus merganser
Common Merganser
These diving ducks have spike-like bills with saw-edged mandibles that are well adapted for feeding on a variety of fish species.

Common Merganser
Mergus merganser Linnaeus
Status Common transient, uncommon in winter and summer. Breeds. It arrives on fresh water in numbers in late March or early April, when the ice breaks up.

Common Merganser (Mergus merganser)
No photo of the Common Merganser available.

Common Merganser Photos
Click on the thumbnail for high-resolution photos. Not particularly shy around here, but tough to approach, so this is the only good photograph I have right now.

Common Merganser ( Mergus merganser )
Common Merganser (Male), Lost Lagoon, Near Stanley Park, British Columbia
Photograph by Alan And Elaine Wilson. Some rights reserved.

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.

Hooded mergansers nest 10 to 20 feet off the ground in hollow trees.
Here at the Zoo
The Cypress Swamp in our 1904 Flight Cage is home to our hooded mergansers.

Common Merganser
Credit: Wikipedia
Download full size image
The Common Merganser (Mergus merganser), also known as the Gulaund or Goosander, is a species of duck that is found in Europe, North Asia and North America.

Brazilian Merganser (Mergus octosetaceus)
The Brazilian Merganser is one of the rarest birds in South America and is classified as Critical by Birdlife International in "Threatened Birds of the World". There may be less than 200 birds left.

The Hooded Merganser is the smallest of three North American mergansers and the only one restricted to this continent.

The Common Merganser (Mergus merganser) is a large diving duck which breeds across much of Canada and parts of the northern and Rocky Mountain areas of the United States.

Red-breasted merganser
Listen
Sound clips and movies require Adobe Flash player.

RangeThe hooded merganser breeds from southern Alaska south to Oregon and Montana and from Manitoba and Nova Scotia, Canada south to Arkansas and northern Alabama.

Smews are the smallest species of mergansers or Sawbills. It is one of the three species of Sawbills that occurs in Europe. Sawbills are diving ducks with a hook at the tip of their bills.

Broods do not combine as they do in other mergansers. Female performs distraction display. Very fast flyer.

HOODED MERGANSER
Lophodytes cucullatus
Hooded Merganser are the smallest of the three North American mergansers.

Common Merganser Mergus merganser. Rare in winter and rare to occasional in spring and fall in primarily the Tennessee Valley region. Found on freshwater lakes and rivers. Low Conservation Concern.

Common Merganser
Fall Sighting Information: uncommon
Nest on or near Refuge? no
Hooded Merganser
Fall Sighting Information: uncommon
Nest on or near Refuge? no ...

6. White Merganser - Mergellus albellus
The Latin name Mergellus albellus roughly translates as "small white merganser". Well, White Merganser sounds a lot better than Smew! ...

The Hooded Merganser is listed as Endangered in Kentucky. It is not very common throughout the remainder of the Southeast, but it s not listed as requiring any special conservation protection in any other state.
Similar Species ...

Scaly-sided Merganser has not been seen for this three days. We were lucky to see about 50 of Baikal Teal at Tatsuta Bridge of Kiso River.
Date/Time
Site Name ...

The CyberAvairy - Merganser Movie
This was filmed at Onondaga Lake, Syracuse, NY.

Predators include mergansers, herons, kingfishers, mink, owls, osprey, otter, perch, eels, other trout, and man.
Fishing Facts ...

Northern Gannet (30 ads.) Great Cormorant (7) Double-crested Cormorant (8) Common Eider (83) Harlequin Duck (13) Surf Scoter (10) White-winged Scoter (5) Black Scoter (36) Oldsquaw (224) Red-breasted Merganser (6) Merlin (1) Purple Sandpiper (7) ...

The fish eating ducks , the mergansers , with slender, serrated bills, which also prefer open water. The surface feeders take wing straight up, while the divers fly along the water's surface in taking off.

Unlike goldeneyes, buffleheads, and mergansers, which frequent calmer shorelines and customarily nap on the water, ...

All ducks, except the merganser, have bills lined with bony
notches for straining plant and animal matter from water.
Most ducks of northern continents are migratory. Most males
are bright colored with bold patterns.

A visit to the Chincoteague Fish and Wildlife Refuge, can reveal an array of waterfowl including pintail, gadwall, merganser, wigeon, mallards, green-winged teal, blue-winged teal, Canada and snow geese.

Bartmann, W. (1994) The Brazilian Merganser (Mergus octocetaceus) - nearly extinct. Captive Breeding Spec. Gp. News 5: 7-8.
Bartmann, W. (1996) The Brazilian Merganser - nearly extinct?. Threatened Waterfowl Res. Group Newsl. 9: 32-34.

Please identify adult loons carefully-they can occasionally be confused with mergansers or cormorants!
Immature Loons: Fully covered with light and dark gray feathers. They are 2/3 adult size or larger.

In Lake Superior, larger fish often feed on smaller lake trout. Sea lamprey prey on large lake trout. Mergansers and loons may eat lake trout.
Habitat and range ...

To be able to submerge easier, the diving ducks are heavier for size than dabbling ducks, and therefore have more difficulty taking off to fly. A few specialized species (the goosander and the mergansers) are adapted to catch large fish.

Loons are particularly hard hit, along with mergansers, grebes, gulls, and shore birds. Fish are dying too, though even apparently healthy fish can contain the toxin. Many avian outbreaks are associated with obvious fish kills.

The mergansers are specialized for catching fish; the edges of their bills have sharp, toothlike serrations for holding slippery prey.

See also: Duck, Mallard, Teal, Cormorant, Sparrow