Hooded Merganser

Hooded Merganser typically exhibit low-slung swimming due to their leg placement, which also results in their awkward movement on land. Their daily activities include running across water surfaces to take flight, followed by rapid wingbeats and an absence of gliding save for when landing. Socially, hooded Merganser are found in pairs or small clusters, partaking in elaborate group courtship involving males showcasing their distinctive crests and both genders engaging in unique head-bobbing and vocal displays. Remarkably, during the nesting season males may leave their mates post-mating, with the females potentially performing a broken-wing act to shield their brood from various predators.

Hooded mergansers are short-distance migrants, and they winter in the United States in regions where winter temperatures allow for ice-free conditions on ponds, lakes and rivers. They have two major year-round ranges. One is in the Eastern United States from the southern Canada–US border along the Atlantic Coast to the Gulf Coast in the region of the Mississippi delta. A smaller year-round range extends from Washington state and southern British Columbia to northern Idaho. They also breed to some extent in regions from Missouri to southern Canada and from Nova Scotia to eastern North Dakota and Saskatchewan, migrating when necessary to avoid winter conditions. For preference the hooded merganser lives on small bodies of water such as ponds and small estuaries where there is ample emergent aquatic vegetation, but it also inhabits larger wetlands, impoundments, flooded timber, and rivers. They prefer fresh water but do occur on brackish water bodies as well.

Population declines in the past have been linked with large scale deforestation. Because these waterfowl are cavity nesters, they require mature trees in which suitable nesting sites are likely to be found. It has been suggested that in recent years proper timber management is increasing available habitat successfully. One priority consideration when managing wooded habitat for cavity nesting ducks, is to maintain a sufficient population of mature trees in which suitable nesting cavities would be plentiful. In addition these ducks do make use of artificial nest boxes when available. Because of their high reliance on aquatic prey, hooded mergansers are very susceptible to harm from many types of pollution, some of which are poisons that accumulate in the food organisms, directly poisoning predators high in the food chain, and some of which simply reduce the populations of their prey.