Red-breasted merganser

The Red-breasted merganser ( Mergus serrator ) is a Palmipède pertaining to the family of the Anatidae and the subfamily of the Merginae.

Identification

The Red-breasted merganser is a plunger duck. Its red frayed nozzle, its black head with green reflections, its white collar and its crested confer an inimitable style to him. The male is easy to recognize with its crested double, its white collar and its mottled reddish chest of black. On the other hand, the females and the youthful ones strongly resemble those of the goosander. However, the senior observer will make without sorrow the distinction between the two species. Indeed, the goosanders females and youthful present a very clear separation between the brown head and the white neck whereas those of the red-breasted merganser see brown head being melted without transition in the gray from the neck. The merganser holds its name of its practice to swim the submerged body (Mergus, of mergere, to submerge).

Song

Usually quiet, the rather soft dissyllabic cry of the male in parade answers the raucous kokokok and grognant female.

Habitat

Watery species, they prefer salt water with fresh water in general. The red-breasted merganser thus finds itself rather in edge of ocean and on the littoral but also sometimes on bank of the big lakes and the ponds.

Behaviors

As of the end of the laying, the male deserted discreetly the family unit to change its plumage. Most of the time, the red-breasted merganser is dumb. It is migrating. In winter, it goes down towards the south to research from more lenient climates.

Flight

The flight of the red-breasted mergansers is fast and rectilinear, generally with the short-nap cloth of water, neck and bodies lengthened with the impression to have the wings very behind body.

Nesting

The nest is posed by ground. The bushes, the low branches of the trees, the cavities in the rocks are used as shelters. Brooded is of eight eggs on average and it is the female which deals with the incubation which lasts one month. The small ones are nidifuges and are launched as soon as they are ready to move.

Mode

It nourishes mainly fish but its usual menu also includes/understands molluscs, shellfish, watery insects, notammant dragonflies. All these elements of animal origin, it is necessary to add vegetable matter in more or less variable quantity according to the available resources.

Reference

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