This is the first article of series of 4 or so I will be doing on Waterfowl that you can find in New Jersey. That takes in a lot of territory. Raptors and beautiful songbirds and herons and egrets and ibises are exciting and wonderful subjects in their own right, but waterfowl are equally fascinating. To me, even more so than most other birds. They are adapted to some of the harshest conditions (try diving under frigid water for fish sometime), come in an amazing assortment of shapes and colors, and are uniquely adapted to life on and in the water. While some scour the shallow water for plants to munch on, others dive deep and hunt for fish and crabs. Still others will forage in grasses and fields as well as feeding on aquatic plant life. Each of them, the ducks, teal, swans, mergansers, cormorants and geese comprise one of the largest groups of birds on the planet. Many are also the prime targets for hunters, thus becoming yet another link in the food chain. Entire organizations such as Ducks Unlimited are devoted to the conservation of wetlands and nesting areas for these birds. For hunters, naturalists, ecologists and all of us. Helping to insure the survival of these amazing members of the avian community.

The first installment on Waterfowl is about the Mergansers.

These birds share one thing that is immediately evident. They have long, narrow, serrated bills. They are designed for being able to grasp and hold onto small aquatic animals, which comprise their primary food source. All Mergansers dive for their meals. They use their webbed feet and sometimes even their wings to maneuver underwater. Some can dive quite deep, and go long distances in search of a meal.

Another thing they all share is that they are extremely skittish and shy. Getting close to them for photographs requires patience, diligence, and a very careful approach. A blind is probably the best way to be able to get them close, but barring that, you need to be extremely careful (and lucky) to get a nice close views of them in action. A really long lens doesn’t hurt, either.

If you fail to do so, the other thing you will immediately see is how incredibly fast they can get out of the water and take wing. Some, like the Hooded Merganser, can jump almost immediately from the water into flight. Others, like the Common Merganser, take a running start along with flapping their wings to get up and going. Mergansers are some of the fastest fliers in the world. The Red-Breasted Merganser can exceed 115 mph in level flight. Faster than a Peregrine Falcon.

The Hooded Merganser is the clown of the group. They are small, compact birds, with wonderful personalities and a striking color scheme (Males).  They are incredibly agile both in flight and on the water and under it!  The Hooded Merganser, like the other mergansers I will talk about here, visit the NJ area only in Winter. They are one of the wonderful things I look forward to every year when the weather turns cold.

Hooded Merganser Male - Showing the serrated bill that they use to catch their prey.

Hooded Merganser (Female) showing off her finest bonnet.

Hooded Merganser (Male) swimming in an icy channel

The “Hoodies” generally gather in small to large groups to feed. Some stay on the surface as “lookouts” for trouble or predators at all times. This is a common theme among many diving ducks and birds. They are frequently targets of raptors and other birds of prey, so the “community” uses this technique to help avoid falling victim to the ever-present danger. They also will generally find and “work” a productive area. This is usually someplace where fish and crustaceans are concentrated. Often this will be where there are narrow inlets (both natural and man-made) where tidal changes bring large amounts of food in through small openings and channels. Once they find a place like this, they will return there over and over again to take advantage of the abundant food supply. In addition to predators, mergansers have to be wary of the ever present and opportunistic Seagulls, who love to wait and swoop down on a merganser emerging with some tasty treat, trying to steal the meal.

Hooded Merganser (Male) starts his dive.

Arching his compact body, a Hooded Merganser (Male) hits the water in search of food

Anatomy of a Hooded Merganser dive

The dive consists of a fluid series of movements to propel the little merganser optimally into the water and down under the surface. With tail feathers elevated, it then pushes them down against the water surface, while at the same time arching it’s neck and body. Using it’s feet and tail feathers as a fulcrum, it propels itself forward and then downward into the water at a more acute angle, allowing it to get under the surface in a hurry. The “hood” is brought back in close to the head in order to reduce drag, just before the merganser starts it dive. This combination of arching it’s body and propelling itself forcefully from the very rear with it’s feet and tail insures that it can enter the water almost vertically, much like a human making a dive from a springboard.

Another successful grab - this time, a small crab.

Hooded Merganser are delightful to watch. They are incredibly active, and they do all sorts of interesting things. Aside from the fun of watching them dive and come up with their prey, their preening ritual is fun to watch.  They have to contort themselves and maneuver their heads and tails to reach everything. They will roll over on their sides in the water to get at their belly feathers. They will then usually stand up in the water and shake off by flapping their wings. Amazingly, they seem to be able to almost come totally out of the water when doing this.

Tail Feathers Cocked up for preening duties

I've just been mooned by a Merganser.

Work those tail feathers! - Hooded Merganser (Male) preening

Don King has nothin' on me!

The females of course are much more refined and ladylike. Well, not really, but they do seem to comport themselves with more grace and dignity than the males. The males are the showoffs and the sillier of the pair. At least that has been my experience. I’ve spent countless hours observing these birds and photographing them. One thing in particular that I have noticed is that the females seem to be a little less fearful than the males. They will usually be the ones to come in close to where I have parked my car to look over at them on Wildlife drive at the Forsythe Refuge. The males will stay far back until the females are in close and diving for food. Only then will the males start to come in and feed with them.

Female Hooded Merganser with a fully raised "hood", looking very distinguished.

One of the most spectacular things is when something startles the “Hoodies” and they decide it’s time to take off as opposed to sticking around to see what’s going on. They explode from the water so quickly that getting a good photograph of them is incredibly challenging. By the time you see it, it’s too late. Only if you are already focused on one of them is it even remotely possible, for the most part.

Hooded Merganser Pair blast from the water in a channel at Forsythe Refuge

The same pair, about 1 second later.

Once airborne, the Hooded Merganser can quickly reach speeds close to 100mph. They are small and extremely agile in the air. They will turn, bank and maneuver in unison. It’s amazing to watch these little birds whiz by like a formation of miniature F-16′s.

Hooded Merganser (Male) on the wing.

Two Hoodie Pairs flying in unison.

While the “Hoodies” are a real favorite of mine (as you can see), there are a couple other regular visitors of the merganser family that make their way to NJ, and they are wonderful subjects to observe and photograph.

The Common Merganser is a pretty large bird as Mergansers go, and it is fascinating in that the colors of the male and female are so starkly different. The one thing both the male and female share is a bright red bill. These birds also dive for their food, and catch fish, crabs, crustaceans and just about anything else they can get their bills on while under the water. They are also typically skittish and don’t like close approaches by humans. The male is so easily distinguished that you can see the gleaming white of the body and the dark green head from a very long way off. They are pretty unmistakable. They are often seen as a pair with the female. Like the “hoodies”, the Common merganser will hunt in small groups. Sometimes it will be all females, other times a mix. Rarely are all males together without at least one or two females among them. I have on rare occasions seen as many as six males together without any females, but I believe that is the exception. For some reason, the males always want a female or two around. Maybe to make them a sandwich? (just kidding here, girls).

Common Merganser (Male)

As a note to budding bird photographers. The Common Merganser Male is one of the single most difficult birds to photograph (well) on the planet. It has a deep dark head with a black eye, and a gleaming white body sides. To get an exposure where you can see the head and eye, and not have the whites completely blown out and overexposed takes more than relying of Photoshop skills. In fact, if you have to do any seriously major Photoshop work, you should try to get better photos, first. For me the key is to expose based on the light coming off the white parts. Then, to carefully follow the bird until it moves it’s head or aligns itself with the sun so that the head is brightly illuminated. That way, you can get detail in both areas. Otherwise, you will have a nicely detailed white bird with a black, featureless head, or a blazing whiteout with a green head and eye. I’ve taken many hundreds of shots of these birds. The photo above is one of only a handful that I have managed that shows detail in all areas. It’s a wonderfully challenging bird to get good shots of, and a great test of patience and of developing skills as a bird photographer.

Common Merganser (Female)

Common Merganser Pair

The Common Merganser (like the Red-Breasted Merganser) needs a little bit of a runway to get up and going. It does this with extreme efficiency and speed, however. Using it’s powerful wings, assisted by it’s feet, it races along the surface of the water, running and flapping to get up to takeoff velocity. Once in the air, it is a speed demon.

Common Merganser (Female) blasting out of the water and starting her takeoff

Common Merganser Pair in flight, near sunset.

While you can find the Common and Hooded Mergansers in salt or brackish water, they are more likely to be in protected and calm areas. They don’t generally venture beyond shallow bays and estuaries or marshes.

The Red-Breasted Merganser however is a seafarer. It has no qualms about navigating incredibly turbulent seas such as you’d find at the Barnegat Light Inlet during a swift tide change. There, they dive with incredible skill for fish and other prey. The fastest in flight of all waterfowl, the Red Breasted Merganser is at home in waters that challenge the most powerful boats. Amazing to watch, and fascinating to observe in action.

Red Breasted Merganser (Male)

One of the things you immediately notice about the males is that “punk” hairdo. They have wispy and disorganized “hoods” and sprays of head feathers, that often appear as two distinct clumps or groups, for lack of a better descriptive term. Another is that brilliant red eye. They are brilliantly patterned birds with Green, red, white, chestnut brown and gray.

The female resembles the female Common merganser, but the colors of the head and body blend more irregularly and overlap, whereas the Common Merganser female has a sharp line between the chestnut colored head and white neck and upper body.

Female Red-Breasted Merganser swimming in the Barnegat Inlet

The Red Breasted Mergansers are expert and precision divers. Able to stay under water for pretty lengthy periods, the often emerge hundreds of yards away from where they first went under the water.

Red Breasted Merganser (Male) starts his dive.

Notice that with the Red-Breasted and other mergansers how they tuck their head/hood feathers in tight against their head before going under the water. This eliminates drag and allows them to swim and dive more efficiently, as well as being more aerodynamic during flight.

The Red Breasted Merganser, as I mentioned earlier, is the fastest in flight of all waterfowl. It quickly reaches speeds in excess of 100mph, and thus makes a very challenging target for in-flight photography. If you don’t see one coming, you have very little chance of grabbing the shot.

Red Breasted Merganser (Male) taking off from the Barnegat Inlet

Red Breasted Merganser (Male) decides it's time to get out of Dodge.

Red Breasted Merganser (Male) at top speed, showing it's incredible aerodynamic shape.

One of the rarest things to see with any of the Merganser is their feet! They do go on land, but not usually for long. Once in a while, however, you get lucky.

Red Breasted Merganser (Female) on the shore at sunset.

Articles to come in this series:

Ducks, Teal and similar waterfowl of fresh and brackish water

Ducks and Waterfowl of the ocean

Geese, Brant and Swans

View the entire series