When we were kayaking last week, we came across some mergansers who didn’t seem to mind getting their pictures taken. In fact they seemed to want to pose for me. I was able to get some photos before they grew tired of me being around them.
Mergansers are also known as sawbills, fish ducks, and goosanders.
These are likely juvenile mergansers. They look like this, with rust-coloured heads and a short crest on their heads. When the juveniles grow, they will keep the same colours and shape of head if they are females, but if they are males, they have white bodies and dark green heads with no crest. It’s hard to imagine it’s the same bird. You can see a Photo of a male merganser in an earlier post of mine.
They have slender bills which are serrated. Mergansers are also known as fish ducks, so their serrated bills help them as they catch the fish. They can dive and fish in a manner similar to a loon.
