Young Hooded Merganser Ducks

Young Hooded Merganser Ducks



Juvenile Hooded Merganser Ducks diving for food give just a hint of the wildly colorful head dress and crests that come with adulthood. They are usually just winter visitors to Florida. These ducks are in captivity, but totally oblivious to humans and having a grand time.

Hooded Mergansers are fairly common on small ponds and rivers, where they dive for fish, crayfish, and other food, seizing it in their thin, serrated bills. They nest in tree cavities; the ducklings depart with a bold leap to the forest floor when only one day old.

Hooded Mergansers dive to catch aquatic insects, crayfish, and small fish. Males court females by expanding their white, sail-like crests and making very low, gravelly, groaning calls. Hooded Mergansers fly distinctively, with shallow, very rapid wingbeats.

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Young Hooded Merganser Ducks