Beak of the Week – Red-breasted Merganser

This week’s Beak of the Week, the Red-breasted Merganser, has a long, thin bill with serrated edges like a bread knife! Males of this species have green heads with a hairdo that resembles a punk rocker, a white neck band and a mottled red breast. They have black backs and wings with bright white patches that can be seen in flight. Females are a little more dull with a red head still rocking the signature shaggy mohawk, a white breast, and grey back and wings with large white patches.

Red-breasted Mergansers are some of the fastest flying ducks in the world, reaching speeds of up to 81 mph! To do this, they need a running start like a Loon. Their feet are positioned farther back on their bodies, making it difficult to walk on land or very fast on water. This means they need a lot of room to run in order to get in the air and fly at those amazing speeds. While their leg positioning doesn’t help them in that regard, it is massively helpful with diving. Diving is a Merganser’s preferred method of hunting. Red-breasted Mergansers hunt in shallow waters for small fish, and the serrated bill mentioned earlier comes in handy to add an extra bit of grip when catching the small, slippery fish.

Red-breasted Mergansers are long distance migrants, breeding high in the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska, overwintering along the coastline of the United States and Mexico. To find a Red-breasted Merganser for yourself, look out to the ocean or in the bays that surround the Bolivar Peninsula. Great places to look for these diving ducks are Bolivar Flats Bird Sanctuary, Frenchtown Road on the Bolivar Peninsula, and at Gast Woods where the forest opens up out towards the bay.