Family: Merginae
Genus:Mergellus, Smew
Genus:Lophodytes, Hooded Merganser
Genus:Mergus, mergansers (5 living species,
one extinct).
Genus
Mergus
Mergus octosetaceus, Brazilian
Merganser, No: Brasilfiskand
Mergus serrator, Red-breasted
Merganser,
No:
Siland
Mergus merganser, Common Merganser,
No:
Laksand
Mergus
squamatus, Scaly-sided Merganser,
No:
Skjellfiskand
Mergus australis Auckland
Islands Merganser,
No:
Aucklandfiskand
†
Genus Mergellus
Mergellus
albellus, Smew,
No:
Lappfiskand
Genus Lophodytes
Lophodytes
cucullatus,
Hooded Merganser,
No:
Hjelmfiskand
(main
page) |
Mergus is the genus of the typical mergansers, fish-eating
ducks in the seaduck subfamily, Merginae.
The Hooded Merganser, often termed Mergus cucullatus,
is not of this genus but closely related.
The other "aberrant" merganser, the Smew, Mergellus
albellus, is phylogenetically closer to goldeneyes, Bucephala,
but included here.
Although they are seaducks, most of the mergansers prefer riverine
habitats, with only the Red-breasted Merganser being
common at sea. These large fish-eaters typically have black-and-white,
brown and/or green hues in their plumage,
and most have shomewhat shaggy crests. All have serrated edges
to their long and thin bills that help them grip their prey.
Along with the Smew and Hooded Merganser, they are therefore
often known as "sawbills".
The goldeneyes, on the other hand, feed mainly on mollusks,
and therefore have a more typical duck-bill.
They are also classified as "divers" because they
go completely under-water in looking for food. In other traits,
however,
the genera Mergus, Lophodytes, Mergellus,
and Bucephala are very
similar; uniquely among all Anseriformes, they do not
have notches at the hind margin of their sternum, but holes
surrounded by bone. |
Common Merganser, Mergus
merganser, No: Laksand
The Goosander is distributed
across the temperate and sub-arctic zones of the northern hemisphere.
It tends to breed further north and migrate southwards in the winter
but some populations,
such as the British one, are largely sedentary.
The
female, seenon photo above, has a greyish body and a reddish
brown head and upper neck with a white chin.
Note the sharp border between the brown upper neck and the white
lower neck which distinguishes the female
Goosander from the female Red-breasted Merganser.
Following the breeding season the male Goosander moults and
looks very similar to the female during this process. |
The
male is mainly white and this can have a pinkish tinge in winter and
early spring.
Its head looks black at a distance but is in fact a dark glossy green
and it has a mane-like crest.
The bill is long, narrow and red with a black strip along the top.
It is also serrated to grip slippery fish and this gives rise to the
designation of "sawbill".
They
tend to be found in the upper reaches of rivers and on large
inland lakes with plenty of trees in which to nest during the
breeding season but congregate in flocks during the winter and
these can be at or near the coast.
However, when moulding in summer, the male can be found in great
flocks, as in the picture above, from the mouth of the
River Tana in Finnmark, Northern Norway, where as many as 25.000
can be seen at that time. |
 ©
Arthur Grosset
Rather hungry
fellow, this one....
It feeds primarily
on fish obtained by diving from the surface using its legs for propulsion.
It normally returns to the surface to eat its prey clasping the fish
round the middle
using its serrated bill then gradually moves the fish so that it can
swallow it head first.
Picture
of the week, March 27th, 2008. Photo taken near our home, Ulefoss,
Norway
Smew,
Mergellus albellus,
No: Lappfiskand
The Smew, Mergellus albellus, is a small duck, which is somewhat
intermediate between the typical mergansers, Mergus,
t (though closely related) and might actually be a bit closer
to the goldeneyes.
The Smew has interbred with the Common
Goldeneye,
Bucephala clangula.
The drake Smew, with its 'cracked ice' appearance, is unmistakable,
and looks very black-and-white in flight.
The females and immature males are grey birds with chestnut
foreheads and crowns, and can be confused at a distance
with the Ruddy
Duck; they are often known as "redhead" Smew.
It has oval white wing-patches in flight.
The Smew's bill has a hooked tip and serrated edges, which help
it catch fish when it dives for them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smew
|
©
www.arthurgrosset.com
This
species breeds in the northern taiga of Europe and Asia. It
needs trees for breeding. The Smew lives on fish-rich lakes
and slow rivers. As a migrant it leaves its breeding areas and
winters on sheltered coasts or inland lakes of the Baltic Sea,
the Black Sea, northern Germany and the Low Countries, with
small number reaching Great Britain (for example, at Dungeness),
mostly at regular sites. Vagrants have been recorded in North
America.
On lakes it prefers areas around the edges, often under small
trees.
The Smew breeds in May and lays 6–9 cream-colored eggs.
It nests in tree holes, such as old woodpecker nests.
It is a shy bird and flushes easily when disturbed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smew
|
 
Male
and female Smew
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Smew.both.arp.600pix.jpg
Hooded
Merganser,
Lophodytes cucullatus, No: Hjelmfiskand
 
Left: Female, Right:
Male
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hooded_merganser_-_female.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kappens%C3%A4ger_m%C3%A4nnlich_seitlich_050501.jpg
The
Hooded Merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus, is a small duck
and is the only member of the genus Lophodytes.
Hooded Mergansers have a crest at the back of the head which
can be expanded or contracted.
In adult males, this crest has a large white patch, the head
is black and the sides of the duck are reddish-brown.
The adult female has a reddish crest, with much of the rest
of the head and body a greyish-brown. See pictures above.
The Hooded Merganser has a sawbill but is not classified as
a typical merganser.
Hooded Mergansers are the second smallest species of merganser,
with only the Smew of Europe and Asia being smaller,
and is also the only Merganser whose native habitat is restricted
to North America.
Their preferred habitat for breeding is in swamps and wooded
ponds of the northern half of the United States and southern
Canada. They prefer to nest in tree cavities near water, but
will use Wood Duck nesting boxes if available and unoccupied.
They form pairs in early winter. The male leaves the female
soon after she lays her eggs, leaving her responsible for
all incubation. After hatching, chicks leave the nest with their
mother within 24 hours; they are already able to dive and feed
themselves, although they remain with their mother for another
five weeks.
Female
Hooded Merganser at Walsrode Bird Park, Germany.
The head is golden buff in the breeding season.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lophodytes_cucullatus_-Vogelpark_Walsrode_-female-8a.jpg
|
Hooded Mergansers are short-distance migrants, and winter in
the United States wherever winter temperatures allow
for ice-free conditions on ponds, lakes and rivers.
A few of these ducks have occurred as vagrants to Europe; however,
this attractive species is quite common in captivity,
and most birds seen in the wild in Europe are presumed to be
escapees
These ducks feed by diving and swimming under water to collect
small fish, crustaceans and aquatic insects.
They find their prey underwater by sight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooded_Merganser
|
Mergus
octosetaceus Brasilfiskand Brazilian Merganser
See
other page, click here
Scaly-sided
Merganser, Mergus
squamatus, No: Skjellfiskand
 
Skjellfiskand,
hann og hunn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:261_Schuppens%C3%A4ger_20091229.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:253_Schuppens%C3%A4ger_2009123%C3%9F.JPG
The Scaly-sided Merganser or Chinese Merganser, Mergus squamatus
is an endangered typical merganser, genus Mergus.
It lives in temperate East Asia, breeding in the north and wintering
in the south.
This
striking sea duck has a thin red bill and a scaled dark pattern
on the flanks and rump. Both sexes have a crest of wispy elongated
feathers, reaching almost to the shoulders in adult males and
being fairly short in females and immatures.
The adult male has a black head and neck, white breast and underparts,
and blackish mantle and wings, except for the white
innerwings. The scaling is also black, while the tail is medium
grey. The female has a buffish head and otherwise replaces the
male's black with grey colour. The legs are orange-red and the
irides dark brown in both sexes.
Their
breeding habitat is rivers in primary forest in the southeastern
Russian Far East, perhaps in North Korea, and in
northeastern China. The bulk of the species' population seems
to breed in the Xiao Xingangling Mountains (Heilongjiang Province)
and Changbai Mountains
of China. Mergus. squamatus are migratory, wintering
in central and southern China,
with small numbers in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, northern Vietnam,
Myanmar and Thailand. They arrive on the breeding
grounds as soon as winter is over, in March, and leave when
the first cold nights come in late October.
This shy and easily startled bird favors mid-sized rivers which
meander through wide expanses of mixed forest in the lowlands,
up to 1,000 meters ASL or less. Birds tend to move upriver during
the day, both when startled and when foraging;
the latter is probably because stirred-up sediments will alert
and hide prey downstream. Food is caught with the serrated
beak from among the riverbed gravel. Often the birds dive for
prey, repeatedly submerging for a quarter-to half-minute
with only a few seconds pause between dives. In shallow water,
the birds submerge only the head; they do not upend.
The birds are not very social, and only rarely encountered in
groups larger than pairs or families.
Even on the wintering grounds, groups of more than a dozen are
very rare.
They spend most of the daylight time foraging, except around
noon when they take some time to rest, preen and socialize
at the river banks, where they also sleep. The food of Mergus
squamatus consists of aquatic arthropods and small or young
fish. Stonefly, Plecoptera and Phryganeidae giant
caddisfly larvae may constitute the bulk of its diet when available.
Beetles and crustaceans are eaten less regularly, though the
latter may be more important in autumn. As aquatic insect larvae
hatch in the course of the summer, fish become more prominent
in the diet. Favorite fish species include the Dojo Loach, Misgurnus
anguillicaudatus and the lenok Brachymystax lenok.
More rarely eaten are such species as the lamprey Eudontomyzon
morii, the sculpin Mesocottus haitej, or the Arctic
Grayling, Thymallus arcticus.
Thus, they are opportunistic feeders; regarding fish, they will
probably eat any species that has the correct elongated shape
and small size.
Scaly-sided Mergansers nest in trees, as typical for the merganser
and goldeneye lineage of sea ducks.
Preferred nesting trees are such species as Daimyo Oak, Quercus
dentata, and Ussuri Poplar. Populus ussuriensis,
a balsam poplar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaly-sided_Merganser
|
In the 1960s and 1970s, its decline
in Russia coincided with economic development of the taiga.
Primary forests in the
valleys of all large rivers were greatly altered, but large-scale
deforestation in river valleys is now prohibited, however
the new Russian Forest Codex (2007) requires a water protection
zone (no deforestation) of only 100 m for large rivers
(50 m on each side), and 50 m (25 m each side) for rivers shorter
that 100 km, which is likely to significantly reduce suitable
breeding habitat for the merganser, which nests up to 150 m
from the river.
Logging of river sources and adjacent slopes has led to reduced
spring water levels and changes in fish abundance;
since logging began on the Avvakumovka River in 2004 spring
water levels and merganser populations have undergone
continuous declines. Other major threats within the breeding
range include illegal hunting, drowning in fishers' nets
(a major cause of mortality at Russian breeding sites in 2003-20076),
disturbance from motor boats during the breeding
season, river pollution and natural predators.
Increased hunting of waterfowl for sport together with poor
regulation of the spring hunting season (which is intended to
coincide with passage migration and avoid targeting locally
breeding birds) is a significant and increasing threat; large
numbers
were reportedly shot in the Kievka River basin, southern Primorye,
in spring 2008. Threats in its Chinese breeding range
include dam construction, deforestation, illegal hunting, human
disturbance and the use of poisons and/or explosives for fishing.
Fine meshed nets were a significant threat to the post-breeding
congregations at Song Jiang He in Jilin Province, China,
but illegal fishing at the site has been reduced and only large
meshed nets are used in legal fish-farming.
The site remains threatened by industrial pollution. The proposed
Korean Grand Canal project, which aims to canalise
3,134 km of the Korean peninsula's river and would radically
alter the Han and Nakdong rivers (which currently support an
estimated 30-50 birds in winter), was suspended in June 2008
but has not yet been cancelled.
BirdLife
International 2009. Mergus squamatus. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red
List of Threatened Species.
Version 2010.3. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 26
October 2010.
|
Mergus australis, Aucklandfiskand,
Auckland Islands Merganser
©
http://www.bbfish.net/pet/pet_6054.html
The Auckland Islands Merganser, Mergus australis, was a typical
merganser which is now extinct.
Aucklandfiskand var på samme størrelse som silanden.
Hannen hadde et mørk rødbrunt hode, bryst og nakke,
med blåaktig svart kappe og hale med grå vinger. Hunnen
var noe mindre med kortere topp.
Fuglen ble først studert da en fransk ekspedisjon ledet
av oppdagerenr Jules Dumont d'Urville på skipene L'Astrolabe
og
La Zelee besøkte Auckland-øyene i 1840. Dens bestandnedgang
skyldtes en kombinasjon av jakt og byttedyr for ilandsatt
e fremmede dyrearter. Fuglen var istand til å fly, men vanskelig
å skremme, den foretrakk å gjemme seg mellom klipper
når truet.
Siste gang denble sett var da et par ble skutt 9. januar 1902. Den
ble også sett i 1909 i en undersøkelse av området,
og i løpet av 1972/1973 ble søk etter et mulig hekkeområde,
avsluttet med at man konkluderte at fuglen lenge hadde
vært en utryddet fugleart.
Red-breasted
Merganser, Mergus serrator, No: Siland 
www.ecosystema.ru
®
The
Red-breasted Merganser male has blackish green head, white ring around
its neck and redbrown breast.
The female has brown head and neck, and a white throat.
The
Red-breasted Merganser is good at diving, and has saw-tags
on the edges of the bill,
which makes it easy to keep the fish it catches when diving.
It is not uncommon to se The
Red-breasted Merganser with up to 20 chickens or more.
Not because it is extra productive, but rather that the mother has
met another couple,
then taken over her chicken, and now takes care of them all.
The
Red-breasted Merganser is normally wintering along the Norwegian
coast,
where you may be lucky to view large flocks counting several thousand
birds at once.
Denmark,
January 2007
Photo ©
Jørgen Scheel
Myvatn,
Iceland 2004
©
www.vulkaner.no
Pictures from www.rusbiophoto.com:
www.ecosystema.ru ®
Texty more or less
from 'Norges Fugleliv', Det Beste A/S 1997
All
photos above if nothing else mentioned: ©
www.vulkaner.no
|
