Coastal BC Birds: Common Merganser Duck

Common Merganser Duck

Almost any time of year, you can see Common Merganser ducks paddling around the waters near our float cabin home on Powell Lake.

Female Common Merganser

Males are distinctive with a white body and bright green head. Females have a mottled gray body and rusty brown heads with feather sweeping back in a "hairdo" reminiscent of one we used to call a ducktail. How apropos. One thing that makes females difficult to identify is that immature Mergansers have similar colouring.

Mergansers are fish-eating ducks, so you will often see them diving for a tasty meal along our protective log booms.

Resting behind the plants on one of our floating stumps.

A few years ago, we saw a mother Mergansers taking her babies for a ride on her back. Then just after I wrote this post, we had a mother Merganser swim right in front of our cabin with nine babies either on her back or trailing out behind.

Momma Merganser with nine ducklings in tow.

Mergansers nest in cavities in trees well above the ground. The flightless chicks bravely leap to the ground within days of hatching and immediately begin foraging for themselves. How cool!!

An interesting side note is that one of the food sources listed in freshwater sponges.

I'll have to keep an eye on the ones I found on our steel anchor cables to see if they get nibbled down. -- Margy


Reference: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology www.allaboutbirds.org (online)