Hooded Merganser Images

Hooded Merganser Images, Facts and Information:

Lophodytes cucullatus

• Hooded Mergansers are small ducks, males in breeding plumage have chestnut flanks, black and white crests, serrated black bills, black necks, white chests with a black stripe and bright yellow eyes. Females have a brown crest, grayish flanks and breasts, serrated bills that are dark brown on top and darker yellow below and dull yellow to brownish eyes. Hooded Mergansers are the smallest mergansers in North America.
• Hooded Mergansers breed from Northern British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest through central and eastern Canada, the Great Lakes, to New England and into the Ohio River Valley. The winter south to Baja, Mexico and the Gulf Coast.
• Hooded Mergansers are migratory.
• Hooded Mergansers preferred habitats include swamps, ponds, rivers, small forest pools and beaver ponds.
• Hooded Mergansers eat aquatic insects, fish, crustaceans, snails, frogs, and aquatic plants.
• Hooded Mergansers lay 6 to 18 eggs which hatch in 32 to 33 days. The female incubates and they are monogamous. They are cavity nesters.
• A group of ducks can be called a “raft”, “paddling”, “flush” or “brace” of ducks.
• People often call Hooded Mergansers by the name “Hoodie”.
• Hooded Mergansers can live to be more than 14 years of age.

I hope you enjoy viewing my Hooded Merganser photos.