From Opus

Photo by Pete Arnold
Salt Lake City, Utah

Lophodytes cucullatus

[edit] Identification

The Hooded Merganser is a small, long-bodied diving duck. Both sexes have a "hammerhead" like crest, black and white on the drake while a rust brown on hens. The tail of this duck is rather long and often held upright when swimming. Like other mergansers, this bird has a long narrow bill.
Hens are a dark gray color while drakes are mostly black.
Look for two black "spurs" on each side of the drake.

Female
Photo by bobsofpa
Viera Wetlands, Florida, USA, February 2007

[edit] Distribution

This duck is a permanent or summer resident in the Northern portions of the United States and Canada. During the winter these ducks migrate across the Southeastern United States. In the Central portion of the United States this bird is found as a migrant with birds wintering on the West coast.

Most European sightings are likely to be escapes from wildfowl collections, though some (particularly in Iceland and Britain could be genuine vagrants.

[edit] Taxonomy

Monotypic^[1]

[edit] Habitat

These ducks are uncommon in small flocks on sheltered ponds and bays, especially wooded ponds and swamps with standing dead trees. During the breeding season females build a nest in a dead snag much like the Wood Duck Aix sponsa whom they have been known to share nests with.

Photo by CurtMorgan
Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA, November 2007

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

These ducks forage by diving in shallow water where they consume small fish, aquatic insects, and crustaceans (especially crayfish).

[edit] Breeding

Females lay a clutch of 5-44 white eggs inside a tree cavity or nest box, this nest is lined with the downy feathers from the hen's chest. The chicks hatch with open eyes and are covered in down. Within one day of hatching the chicks leave the nest never to return. Female Hooded Mergansers are known to dump their eggs in another Merganser's nest resulting in large clutch sizes; they have even been reported to dump their eggs in the nest of a Wood Duck.

[edit] Reference

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Collins Bird Guide ISBN 0 00 219728 6

• List of references

[edit] External Links