Click photo to see complete painting

Common Merganser

Status Common transient, uncommon in winter and summer. Breeds. It arrives on fresh water in numbers in late March or early April, when the ice breaks up. Small numbers remain to breed throughout the province. This summer population is augmented by transients in fall and early winter, particularly on the Bay of Fundy, the North Shore and on Cape Breton Island, with fewer on the South Shore. In the depth of winter it can be found on swift-running streams which remain open, where it has been said to prey heavily on eels.

Description Length: 53-68 cm. All plumages: Slender, toothed bills like other mergansers. Adult male: Head and upper neck dark glossy green; back black; rump and tail gray; underparts white, tinged with salmon pink; lower neck white; bill and feet red. Adult female: Head cinnamon-brown with prominent crest; throat white; upperparts grayish blue; underparts creamy white; bill and feet duller red than in spring male. Males in midsummer and early autumn resemble females.

Breeding Nest: In natural cavities in trees or on the ground, well concealed by vegetation; usually near water. Eggs: 6-10; creamy white. A nest found on a small island on the Northumberland Strait held six eggs on 28 May 1929. It was well concealed under the low branch of a spruce growing close to the edge of the bank. When disturbed, the sitting female flew directly to join her mate who was near the edge of the tidal water, about 30 m from the nest site. A nest found by Anthony J. Erskine on 3 June 1961 on the Margaree River, Inverness County, contained 10 eggs and was located in an open-top stump, about 3 m up. Many broods have been seen on inland waters, usually accompanied only by the female, though sometimes by both parents. Eight seen on open water near the head of Lumsdens Lake, Kings County, on 18 February 1945 were divided into four well-segregated pairs whose manner strongly indicated they were already mated at this early date.

Range Breeds from central Alaska, the southern Mackenzie Valley, central Quebec, and Newfoundland to the northern and southwestern United States. Winters from southern Canada to northern Mexico. It is also found in Europe and Asia.

Remarks Kortright (1942) says the male deserts his mate when she begins to incubate, leaving the family responsibilities entirely to her. Although this trait is common among many duck species including, in my experience, the Red-breasted Merganser, it is not always true of this bird. On at least two occasions I have seen the drake in attendance: once while the female was incubating (as cited above) and once on a small stream near Antigonish when both birds were with the brood.

The food of mergansers is largely small or medium-sized fishes which they capture underwater by swift pursuit. Many anglers and commercial fishermen have complained that these birds are highly destructive to fishes of economic value, but these birds take those kinds of fishes that are most readily captured. Along with the trout and small salmon they are accused of destroying, such fishes include perch, minnows, eels and other so-called "coarse" fishes that are enemies of trout and salmon. By destroying these predators which are of no economic value, the mergansers undoubtedly assist the valuable species. It is reasonable to assert that if these birds were seriously destructive, trout would have been long extinct because mergansers have been preying on fish since time immemorial. The fact that good trout can still be found in the hinterlands provides additional proof that the birds are not responsible for the overfishing of trout, because they have ready access to such places.

As already stated, the plumage of the male in summer and early autumn is similar to that of the female, both having cinnamon-brown heads with crests. By late October some drakes have begun to acquire their breeding plumage, but the date when this molt is complete varies considerably with individuals. For instance, on 26 October 1950 one shot at Black River, Kings County, had a salmon-pink breast but the head was merely speckled with brown and green; on 13 November 1951 three males seen in the same waters had bright green heads; but on 20 December 1943, one taken near Wolfville, perhaps an immature, still had a brown, crested head, though its breast was pink; on 29 December 1942, four seen at Black River were all in full breeding plumage. The delicate salmon-pink breast of the adult male fades to white soon after death.

Among hunters the Common and the Red-breasted Merganser are often known as "shell-drakes" or "shell-ducks."