Birdwatching - 3115 🐦

🦉 The common merganser (North American) or goosander (Mergus merganser)

• Mergus (Greek) unidentified waterfowl mentioned in the texts of Pliny, Horace, and other ancient Roman authors
• merganser Greek: Mergus-Waterfowl, Anser-Goose

This duck is difficult to confuse with others, especially the male with its contrasting black and white coloring and green head. But the female, gray with a reddish crest, often goes unnoticed. Although if you look closely, mergansers give themselves away by their behavior: they do not like shallow water and stay in the middle of a river or lake, where they dive for fish.

They have a special way of hunting, not like ordinary ducks, which filter water with their beaks. The merganser works like a harpoon. Having noticed the prey, it dives sharply and grabs it with its serrated beak. Interestingly, after this it never eats on the spot, but first emerges and only then swallows the fish.