Critter Catalog

What do they look like?

Red-breasted mergansers are large diving ducks with long, thin bills lined with serrated edges to help in capturing fish prey. Males are larger than females. Lengths range from 51 to 64 cm and weights from 800 to 1350 g. In their breeding plumage, males are more colorful, with dark greenish heads, a white collar, brown-speckled breasts, steel-gray flanks, and greenish-black backs that are bordered by a white patch. Both females and males have a double crest of plumes at the back of their heads. Females are grayish brown, with a small, white wing bar, a whitish breast with gray speckles, and the feathers on the head are reddish brown. The bill and legs are reddish-orange and the bill has a black tip. Females stays the same throughout the year and immature birds resemble females. Males in the non-breeding season resemble females but have wider, white wing bars.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• male more colorful

• Range mass

  800 to 1350 g

  28.19 to 47.58 oz

• Range length

  51 to 64 cm

  20.08 to 25.20 in

Where do they live?

Red-breasted mergansers are found throughout much of the northern hemisphere. They have separate breeding and wintering ranges, although they are found year-round in some northern, coastal areas. In the Americas they breed from Alaska throughout northern Canada to the Atlantic ocean and into the northern United States: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Maine. They breed in Greenland and Iceland and in Eurasia from the Faroe Islands, Ireland, and Scotland through Scandinavia, northern Russia and Asia to Siberia and the Kamchatka Peninsula. Red-breasted mergansers winter in coastal areas, including the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes coasts, and other large, inland waterways as far south as northern Mexico in the Americas and the Baltic, North, Mediterranean, Black, Caspian, and Aral Seas in Eurasia.

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native
• palearctic
  • native
• arctic ocean
  • native
• atlantic ocean
  • native
• pacific ocean
  • native
• mediterranean sea
  • native

• Other Geographic Terms
• holarctic

What kind of habitat do they need?

Red-breasted mergansers are found on wetlands and open bodies of freshwater, brackish, or saltwater. In summer they are found in northern areas, usually coasts, lakes, and rivers near conifer forests or tundra. In winter and during migration they are found on protected waters along sea coasts and large, inland lakes and rivers. Red-breasted mergansers forage mainly in shallow waters with submergent vegetation and abundant fish prey.

• These animals are found in the following types of habitat
• temperate
• saltwater or marine
• freshwater

• Terrestrial Biomes
• tundra
• taiga
• forest

• Aquatic Biomes
• lakes and ponds
• rivers and streams
• coastal
• brackish water

• Other Habitat Features
• estuarine

How do they reproduce?

Red-breasted mergansers form mated pairs each season. Most pair bonds form during spring migration, starting in March. Males use a courtship display and call to attract females. Usually several males display around a single female in an attempt to win her favor.

• Mating System
• monogamous
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

Red-breasted mergansers breed relatively late in the season. Mated pairs arrive on the breeding grounds in May and lay eggs in early June. Young hatch in July and can fly by September or October. Females choose nests on land close to water, usually in dense vegetation or under objects. Nests are usually within 23 m of the water. Females start the nest as a scrape, but gradually add grass and feathers throughout incubation. They lay from 5 to 24 beige to gray eggs. Incubation is generally for 30 to 31 days, young hatch synchronously. Young fledge at 60 to 65 days after hatching. Because they breed relatively late, second clutches are unlikely. Most red-breasted mergansers mate first in their third year, although they are mature in their second year.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• How often does reproduction occur?

  Red-breasted mergansers breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  Red-breasted mergansers breed in May and June.

• Range eggs per season

  5 to 24

• Average eggs per season

  9.5

• Range time to hatching

  30 to 31 days

• Range fledging age

  60 to 65 days

• Range time to independence

  7 (high) weeks

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  2 to 3 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  3 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  2 to 3 years

Females incubate the eggs and brood and care for the young until they abandon them within a few weeks after hatching. Males abandon females on the nest soon after she begins incubating the eggs. (Titman, 1999)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • protecting
    • female

How long do they live?

The oldest recorded red-breasted merganser was 9 years and 4 months old. Like many animals, most hatchlings do not survive through their first year. Up to 50% of hatchlings die because of exposure to cold weather, another 25% are preyed on.

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  9.33 (high) years

How do they behave?

Red-breasted mergansers migrate between summer breeding areas and areas where they spend the winter. They are active during the day. They have rapid, efficient flight and can swim and dive well by propelling themselves with their feet. They cannot walk well because their feet are so far back on the body. Red-breasted mergansers spend about 50% of their waking hours foraging. They are highly social and are usually seen in groups, except during breeding season, when pairs separate to mate and nest. They migrate in spring in small groups of 5 to 15, but in their fall migration they may gather in large groups of up to 15,000. They do not defend territories, even during the breeding season. Red-breasted mergansers are commonly seen foraging and nesting near other bird species.

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• natatorial
• diurnal
• motile
• migratory
• social

Home Range

Red-breasted mergansers are gregarious and do not defend territories. Females return to nest in the area where they were hatched. (Titman, 1999)

How do they communicate with each other?

Red-breasted mergansers use visual displays and calls during the breeding season to attract mates. They also produce alarm calls that sound like "garr" or "grack."

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

What do they eat?

Red-breasted mergansers eat mainly small fishes (10 to 15 cm long) and crustaceans. Their diet is usually made up of more than 75% small fish, with less than 25% made up of crustaceans and other aquatic animals, including insects, worms, and amphibians. They seem to prefer foraging in shallow water, but they will hunt wherever prey is abundant. Red-breasted mergansers forage in several different ways. They float at the surface, looking underwater as they go, they dive in deep or shallow water to search for prey, or they dive in formation with other red-breasted mergansers to herd schooling prey. Preferred fish prey include killifishes, sticklebacks, Atlantic salmon, sculpins, herring and their eggs, salmon eggs, silversides, and blueback herring.

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • piscivore

• Animal Foods
• amphibians
• fish
• eggs
• aquatic or marine worms
• aquatic crustaceans

What eats them and how do they avoid being eaten?

A wide variety of predators feed on eggs and nestlings of red-breasted mergansers, including common ravens, great black-backed gulls, herring gulls, parasitic jaegers, and mink. Adults have been taken by great horned owls and gyrfalcons. They may also be taken by red foxes and snowy owls. (Titman, 1999)

• These animal colors help protect them
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • common ravens (Corvus corax)
  • great black-backed gulls (Larus marinus)
  • herring gulls (Larus argentatus)
  • parasitic jaegers (Stercorarius parasiticus)
  • mink (Neovison vison)
  • great horned owls (Bubo virginianus)
  • gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolis)
  • red foxes (Vulpes vulpes)
  • snowy owls (Nyctea scandiaca)

What roles do they have in the ecosystem?

Red-breasted mergansers are important predators of small fish in their wetland habitats. Snowy egrets, Bonaparte's, and ring-billed gulls will wait at the surface to grab fish scared by merganser foraging. Red-breasted mergansers are also attracted to areas where gulls are feeding on schooling fish.

Do they cause problems?

Red-breasted mergansers are sometimes attracted to fish hatcheries and important salmon spawning streams. They are sometimes persecuted because of their predation on young salmon.

• Ways that these animals might be a problem for humans
• crop pest

How do they interact with us?

Red-breasted mergansers are occasionally hunted, but they are not a common game bird. (Titman, 1999)

• Ways that people benefit from these animals:
• food

Are they endangered?

Red-breasted mergansers have a wide distribution and large populations, they are not considered currently threatened. Some populations may be threatened by wetland destruction and contamination by pesticides and lead. They are also captured in fishing nets sometimes.

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Migratory Bird Act

  Protected

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Some more information...

Contributors

Tanya Dewey (author), Animal Diversity Web.

References

Titman, R. 1999. Red-breasted merganser (Mergus serrator). The Birds of North America Online, 443: 1-20. Accessed April 02, 2009 at http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/443.