Hooded merganser Lophodytes cucullatus

Identification Tips:

• Length: 13 inches Wingspan: 26 inches
• Small, compact diving duck
• Long, pointed bill with serrated edges
• Erectile, fan-like crest extends from back of head
• Dark bill and wings
• Often cocks its tail like a Ruddy Duck
• Immature similar to adult female

Adult male:

• Yellow eye
• Black head and back
• Large white patch in the center of the crest
• White breast and belly
• Black and white stripes at forward portion of reddish flanks
• Dark tail
• Inner half of upperwings whitish, brodered by 2 dark bars
• Alternate plumage worn from fall through early summer
• Male in basic eclipse plumage similar to adult female

Adult female:

• Brown eye
• Cold gray-brown head, neck, flanks, back, and upperwings with paler breast
• Faint reddish tinge to crest
• White belly

Similar species:

Adult male in alternate plumage is unmistakable. Female vaguely similar to other mergansers but much smaller with cold brown head, with reddish fan-like crest, and dark bill.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.