Bird Files: Romantic Stylings of the Red-breasted Merganser

January 30, 2015

No matter when you see Red-breasted Mergansers, it looks like they’re having a bad hair day. The shaggy crests spike up like mohawks. Crests on the males are dark green, and on females, they’re a cinnamon color. 

They’re relatively large ducks, nearly two feet from beak to tail. They ride fairly low and sleek in the water. Mergansers are considered diving ducks because, well, they dive deep below the surface to catch food.The serrations along the edge of their long slender bills make them adept at gripping slippery fish. It’s why they’re nicknamed "sawbills."

Red-breasted Mergansers, along with their kin, the Hooded and Common Mergansers, populate Lake Erie and other bodies of water in winter. They can be seen in large, migrating flocks flying low over the open lake.

And I do mean large. During the 2012 Christmas Bird Count at Presque Isle State Park on Lake Erie, nearly 25,000 birds were counted flying past the watch site in just a few hours.

They’re mostly silent birds. But they do call when they fly and their wings whistle.

In late winter and early spring the males perform courtship displays. They swim around a female, vying for her attention with stylized behaviors that can look pretty funny to us humans. They stretch their necks up really long and point their beaks to the sky, flaunting those crazy hair-like crests. Then they quickly bob their heads down low.

The males also pitter-patter their feet, launching them into hurried “sprints” across the top of the water. Their courting songs are distinct from their other calls.

As winter progresses on the Great Lakes, Mergansers and other ducks are plentiful on the open water. They are a delight to birdwatchers. If you come to see them, be sure to dress warmly—but don’t worry how your hair looks.

Bird calls for this segment come courtesy of The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recorded by Gerrit Vyn.