The
Hooded Merganser (
Lophodytes cucullatus) is a small
duckDuck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered ducks...
and is the only member of the genus
Lophodytes.
Hooded Mergansers have a crest at the back of the head which can be expanded or contracted. In adult males, this crest has a large white patch, the head is black and the sides of the duck are reddish brown. The adult female has a reddish crest, with much of the rest of the head and body a greyish-brown.
The
Hooded Merganser (
Lophodytes cucullatus) is a small
duckDuck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered ducks...
and is the only member of the genus
Lophodytes.
Hooded Mergansers have a crest at the back of the head which can be expanded or contracted. In adult males, this crest has a large white patch, the head is black and the sides of the duck are reddish brown. The adult female has a reddish crest, with much of the rest of the head and body a greyish-brown. The Hooded Merganser has a sawbill but is not classified as a
typical merganserMergus is the genus of the typical mergansers, fish-eating ducks in the seaduck subfamily . The Hooded Merganser, often termed Mergus cucullatus, is not of this genus but closely related...
.
Their breeding
habitatA habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular animal and plant species...
is swamps and wooded ponds on the northern half of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
or southern
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. They prefer to nest in tree cavities near water but will use
Wood DuckThe Wood Duck or Carolina Duck is a medium-sized perching duck. A typical adult is about 19 inches in length with an average wingspan of 29 inches. This is about three-quarters of the length of an adult Mallard. It shares its genus with the Asian Mandarin Duck.The adult male has distinctive...
nesting boxes if available and unoccupied. They form pairs in early winter.
Hooded Mergansers are short distance
migrantsBird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. These however are usually irregular or in only one direction and are termed variously as nomadism, invasions,...
and winter in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
wherever winter temperatures allow for
iceIce is a solid phase, usually crystalline, of a non-metallic substance that is liquid or gas at room temperature, such as carbon dioxide ice , ammonia ice, or methane ice. However, the predominant use of the term ice is for water ice, technically restricted to one of the 15 known crystalline phases...
free conditions on
pondA pond is an inland body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens designed for aesthetic ornamentation, fish ponds designed for commercial fish breeding, and solar...
s, lakes and rivers.
A few of these ducks have occurred as vagrants to
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, however, this attractive
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
is so common in captivity that most
birdBirds are winged, bipedal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay eggs. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Birds range in size from the Bee Hummingbird to the ...
s seen in the wild in Europe are simply escapees.
These ducks feed by diving and swimming under water to collect small fish, crustaceans and aquatic insects.
A species of
fossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous rock formations and sedimentary layers is known as the fossil record...
duck from the
Late PleistoceneThe Late Pleistocene is a stage of the Pleistocene Epoch. The beginning of the stage is defined by the base of Eemian interglacial phase before final glacial episode of Pleistocene 126,000 ± 5,000 years ago. The end of the stage is defined exactly at 10,000 Carbon-14 years BP...
of
Vero Beach, FloridaVero Beach is a city in Indian River County, Florida, USA. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 estimates, the city had a population of 16,939. It is the county seat of Indian River County...
, was described as
Querquedula floridana (a genus now included in
AnasAnas is a genus of dabbling ducks. It includes mallards, wigeons, teals, pintails and shovelers in a number of subgenera. Some authorities prefer to elevate the subgenera to genus rank...
), but upon reexamination turned out to be a species closely related to the Hooded Merganser; it is now named
Lophodytes floridanus, but the exact relationship between this bird and the modern species is unknown.
Appearance
First-winter birds differ from adult females, in having a grey-brown neck and upperparts (black on adult females), and narrower white tertial-edges than adults; all females are dark-eyed whereas in first-winter males, a pale eye is acquired during the winter.
Vagrancy to Europe
Although Hooded Merganser is a common species in captivity in Europe, and most records in the wild are regarded as escapes, a small number of birds have been regarded as genuine wild vagrants. Britain's current first accepted record is a bird which was seen on
North UistNorth Uist is an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.-Description:North Uist is the tenth largest Scottish island and the thirteenth largest island surrounding Great Britain. It has an area of , slightly smaller than South Uist. North Uist is connected by causeways to Benbecula via Grimsay,...
in October 2000.
External links