I have seen a few hooded mergansers paddling around the edges of the river out at the arboretum lately.
Both males and females have a distinct, fan-shaped crest that they can raise and lower. Its hooded silhouette is a good identification clue from a distance.
The male has a white patch on the crest, a white breast with two black bars, a white wing patch, and rusty brown flanks.
The female has a gray-brown body and a brown crest. She blends in well with the surrounding earth tones of the vegetation on the river’s edge.
Their diet consists of small fish, aquatic insects, crustaceans, amphibians, vegetation, and mollusks. They have a slender, serrated bill that makes it optimal for grasping their prey.
Hooded mergansers nest in cavities of live or dead trees that are usually close to water. Therefore, it is important to have older, mature trees with sizable trunks which have either developed a natural cavity or have one excavated by a woodpecker.
