Molting adult male. Photo: Jessica Botzan/Great Backyard Bird Count
Mergus serrator
| Conservation status | Numbers are thought to be stable, but the species could be vulnerable because it forms such dense concentrations at certain times and places during migration, such as late fall on Lake Erie. |
|---|---|
| Family | Ducks and Geese |
| Habitat | Lakes, open water; in winter, coastal bays. During nesting season around lakes and rivers, within the northern forest and northward into tundra regions. In winter mostly on coastal waters, including bays, estuaries, and open ocean; a few winter on ice-free reservoirs and large rivers. |
Forages by diving and swimming underwater. Sometimes a group appears to hunt cooperatively, several birds lining up and driving schools of small fish into very shallow water, where the mergansers scoop them up without diving.
usually 7-10, sometimes 5-13. Olive-buff. Females sometimes lay eggs in each others' nests, occasionally in nests of other ducks. Incubation is by female only, 29-35 days. Young: Within a day after eggs hatch, female leads young to water, where they feed themselves. 2 or more broods may join, tended by 1 or more adult females, but young are left on their own within a few weeks. Young are capable of flight about 2 months after hatching.
Within a day after eggs hatch, female leads young to water, where they feed themselves. 2 or more broods may join, tended by 1 or more adult females, but young are left on their own within a few weeks. Young are capable of flight about 2 months after hatching.
Mostly fish. Feeds mainly on small fish, also crustaceans, aquatic insects, and sometimes frogs, tadpoles, or worms. Young ducklings eat mostly insects.
In courtship display, male stretches neck forward and upward, then suddenly dips neck and forepart of body underwater, with head angled up out of water and bill open wide. Nest: female selects site on ground, usually near water, in a spot sheltered by dense plant growth or debris. Sometimes nests inside hollow stump, under rock, or in shallow burrow. Nest is a simple depression, lined with down.
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.
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