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Red-breasted Merganser
(Mergus serrator)
 German name(s): "Mittelsäger"
Size: 52-58 cm; wing span 67-82 cm
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Similar
species |
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Physical description |
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 Click here for a physical description
Red-breasted Mergansers are medium-sized diving ducks.
Their plumage is
dimorphic, i.e.
males
and
females
are different.
Male Red-breasted Mergansers in breeding plumage have a black head with a
conspicuous,
stringy black crest and a green hue on the sides of the head. The
neck has a white band with brown feathers with dark edge-lining
below it. The front is light-grey, with finely barred grey flanks
and rump. The wings are dark-grey, with white tertiaries and
white inner patches.
Females
have a brown head, with a darker grey-brown stringy crest. Lores
and chin are light-grey. The front is light-grey, while the back
is mottled grey-brown with grey edges. The flight feathers are
dark-grey; only the tertiaries are white.
Non-breeding males closely resemble females.
The irises of both sexes are orange-red to bright-red.
Both sexes have a long, narrow, slightly hooked, orange-red bill
with a grey top side of the upper mandible and the name-giving
sawtooth edges. The legs and feet are orange-red.
Juvenile
Red-breasted Mergansers resemble
females,
but with a duller red bill and a less conspicuous crest.
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Taxonomy, classification |
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See
Red-breasted Merganser at Wikipedia  .
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Range, habitat, finding this species |
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Click here for information on habitat
and range
The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and
specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found,
based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to
ebird.org
.
The global distribution of the Red-breasted Merganser is available
HERE
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Red-breasted Mergansers are a migratory species that populates
parts of the northern hemisphere, all around the globe at medium
to high geographic latitudes.
In North America they can be found permanently along the coastlines
of British Columbia and southern Alaska. In addition to Iceland,
they are permanently present in Ireland, NW England and Scotland,
in Denmark and along the southern Norwegian North Sea coast.
During the breeding season they extend their range to encompass
basically the entire mid- to high-latitude northern hemisphere,
all through Canada (except the south-western inland across the
Rocky Mountains), the north-western US (Great Lakes to Newfoundland)
and some parts of the south-eastern coastline of Greenland. They
also extend their range into almost all of Scandinavia and on
into northern Asia, out to the Bering Sea in the East.
The far eastern migrants spend the northern winters in Japan,
western Korea and the Chinese coastline. Eurasian migrants
winter over along the western Caspian Sea, the central northern
coast of Turkey and all the way from the western Black Sea via
Greece and the Bosporus through the eastern Adriatic coastline
to about Trieste. There are populations in southern Germany,
in the Mediterranean coast in the border region of France and
Spain, in northern Portugal and along the Atlantic/North Sea
coastline from the Pyrenees to the German/Danish border, as
well as south-east England. In North America the winter grounds
span both the Atlantic coastline (from Newfoundland to the
US/Mexican border) and the Pacific coastline(from British
Columbia to the US/Mecian border).
In Europe, apart from wintering grounds in the border
region of southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland,
Red-breasted Mergansers are found primarily in
(near-)coastal areas; for details see
Wikipedia.
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Sightings |
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Click here for sighting information
The first time we spotted Red-breasted Mergansers was at the
Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen, near Amsterdam, Netherlands,
in 1998.
J. Pires reports spotting Red-breasted
Mergansers in the Sado estuary, Portugal, in January 2023.
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Photos |
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ADULT |
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BREEDING |
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PAIR |
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Lateral view of a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers in
flight; male in breeding
plumage
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sado estuary, Portugal, in January 2023]
Near-dorsal view of a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers in
flight; male in breeding
plumage
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sado estuary, Portugal, in January 2023]
Near-dorsal view of several Red-breasted Mergansers in
flight; males in breeding
plumage
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sado estuary, Portugal, in January 2023]
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NON-BREEDING |
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FEMALE |
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Small group of Red-breasted Mergansers; the bird on the back
right, with the reddest and longest bill, is probably a female;
also the birds with their bills under water, with the relatively
prominent crest, are probably females (or males in eclipse
plumage);
the two others may be immature
[Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen, near Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1998]
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PAIR |
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Lateral view of a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers; the bird at the back
may be a male in eclipse
plumage, the bird
in front a female
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sado estuary, Portugal, in January 2023]
Dorsal view of 3 Red-breasted Mergansers; the bird in the
middle may be a male in non-breeding
plumage
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sado estuary, Portugal, in January 2023]
Dorsal view of 3 Red-breasted Mergansers in flight
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sado estuary, Portugal, in January 2023]
These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our
contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species
please refer to a field guide.
Breeding
Nest
Eggs
Behaviour
Food
Call/s
