Goosander

Identification

It is a Canard from 58 to 75 cm length with a scale from 82 to 97 cm, weighing approximately 1300 G for the females and 1600 G for the males. They are large birds of size more important than the Canard mallard.

The male has a head dark green with crested little marked and a long dark, thin and hooked nozzle red. The neck, the chest and the sides are white, the back is black. The wings are white except at the ends where they are black. The tail and the tail are gray. The chest is tinted of pink salmon in spring (bridal plumage).

The female and the immature ones have the russet-red head brown, the white lower parts and the gray top.

The plumage of eclipse of the male points out that of the female extremely. The small ones and average covers (feathers of before wing) which remain white constitute the essential difference.

Surface of distribution

In Europe, it niche in the septentrional forests of Scandinavia and the north of the Russia and the Siberia until the Pacific Ocean. It is a partial Migrateur, according to the rigor of the winter. At this season, one will find it with the Denmark, on the southern part of the the North Sea, in Germany and with the Bénélux. Some arrive in Scotland, Suisse (Lac Léman) and in France on the the Seine, the the Loire and the the Rhine. The Russian mergansers find on the Black Sea, the Mer of Azov and in the north of the Caspian Sea.

In France some goosanders nest on the Lac Léman, the Lac of Annecy and the Lac of Le Bourget.

Habitat

The Goosander attends the rather broad rivers, rivers, the edges of the lakes, the large ponds and the maritime coasts. It niche in the hollow shafts, and the cliff holes.

Behavior

Except season of nesting, it is a sociable bird, which can gather in important groups (hundreds of birds). It can live with other species of plunger ducks about which it does not worry.

It is generally savage, but can be accustomed to the human presence, as in Switzerland, on the edges of the Lake Léman, where it comes to consume the bread which is launched to him.

If its takeoff can seem hard, it can reach 70 km/h in vol.

Food mode

He appreciates the roselières particularly where come to clear many fish; its long nozzle dentil allows him to aggriper fish.

It is an excellent plunger, large-scale consumer fish. It plunges between 20 and 30 seconds and can be inserted up to 10 meters. Its mode depends on the place where it is, in bulk salmon, eel, trout, pole, minnow, pike, pin, chub, Bremen, carp, shade and bleak. Generally, the fish make less than 10 cm, but it can sometimes happen to him to catch fish of 30-40 cm.

Reproduction

The female lays one brooded per annum from 8 to 12 eggs in April - May. The nest is in a roomy cavity of a large tree, with a rather large height which can reach 12 meters, it perhaps far from water, with ground is made of dead sheets and brushwood.

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