Red-breasted merganser
Mergus serrator
Identification Tips:
- Large, sleek diving duck
- Long, pointed bill with serrated edges
- Thin, red bill seems evenly tapered throughout length
- Shaggy crest obvious in both sexes
- Red eye
- White secondaries
- Immature similar to adult female
Adult male:
- Greenish-black head
- White neck
- Reddish breast with dark streaks, bordered on sides by black-and-white
patch
- Gray flanks, tail, rump and uppertail coverts
- Black back
- White belly
- White secondary coverts
- Alternate plumage worn from fall through early summer
- Male in basic eclipse plumage like adult female
Adult female:
- Red-brown head, paler on throat, but without well-defined chin
- Red-brown head fades evenly to paler breast
- Gray and white breast and belly
- Gray-brown body plumage
Similar species:
Adult male in alternate plumage is similar to male Common Merganser
but has reddish breast and gray flanks. Female, immature and eclipse
male distinguished from similarly-plumaged Common Mergansers by lack of
sharply-defined chin and lack of sharp contrast between
reddish head and white breast, and by darker gray plumage, spikier crest,
and slimmer bill. In winter, Red-breasted Mergansers are more likely to
be found in saltwater habitats than are Common Mergansers.