Scaly-sided Merganser
A species of Typical mergansers Scientific name : Mergus squamatus Genus : Typical mergansers
Scaly-sided Merganser, A species of Typical mergansers
Botanical name: Mergus squamatus
Genus: Typical mergansers
Content
Description General Info
Description
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. 
Size
62 cm
Feeding Habits
Scaly-sided Merganser primarily preys on small fish and aquatic invertebrates, modifying its diet seasonally and by habitat. It utilises diving foraging techniques, adapting to shallow waters by immersing only its head. Unique dietary habits include bi-daily trips to river mouths for specific spawning fish during certain times.
Habitat
The scaly-sided Merganser primarily occupies forested riverine habitats along clear, fast-flowing mountain streams and rivers, rich in shingle spits and island features, within the broad taiga zone. These environments are usually remote from human activity, comprising diverse tree species with dense undergrowth. In winter, they frequent similarly clear, flowing rivers in hilly and mountainous regions, seeking areas with minimal human disturbance. A minor portion of the scaly-sided Merganser population migrates to brackish and marine environments during the moulting season.
Dite type
Piscivorous
General Info
Species Status
This species is considered endangered by the IUCN. Its numbers declined in the 1960s and 1970s due to loss of primary forests in its limited range, particularly along the major rivers in Russia. Current threats include illegal hunting, entanglement in (ghost) fishing nets and river pollution, as well as ongoing destruction of forest. According to its current IUCN classification EN C2a(ii), fewer than 5000 adult and first and second year old birds remain, and most of these are found in Primorye and South Khabarovsk regions of Russia (85%) World population survey was completed in 2014 both in Russia and China, the number for North Korea was estimated without survey there. Surveys on dispersal wintering grounds are useless and the way to estimate world population is to survey pristine rivers within breeding range. Rivers of Central China, primarily tributaries of Yangtze River, and all rivers of South Korea constitutes the wintering area well known nowadays. Habitat loss in China led to breeding range reduction and fragmentation there. In Russia population seems to stabilize in 1900th and until now.
Scientific Classification
Phylum
Chordates Class
Birds Order
Waterfowl Family
Geese Genus
Typical mergansers Species
Scaly-sided Merganser 
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