Common, Hooded, and Red-breasted Mergansers

Description

Three species of merganser occur in the Chugach Region. Common Merganser and Red-breasted Mergansers are common residents, occurring seasonally as abundant migrants, uncommon summer visitors and local breeders, and common winter visitors. The Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) is a rare visitor to the Chugach Region.

Common Merganser males resemble a slimmer Mallard, with a white body, a black back, and an emerald-green head. The bill on the male and female is long, slim, and red with a black tip. Female Commons have a gray and white body with a rust-colored head that has a feathered crest resembling a “mullet”. Red-breasted Merganser males have a slim build and green head like Common Mergansers; however, their crest is a bit flared and shaggy. They have speckled white and black bellies, brown chests, black backs, and white stripes around their neck. The females have a similar build but are browns and grays with a warm brown head.

Both male and female Hooded Mergansers have a large, rounded display of feathers along their crest, which is where their name comes from. They are easily distinguished from the two other merganser species but can sometimes be confused with Buffleheads.

Habitat and Status

Red-breasted Mergansers nest along forested riverbanks, marsh edges, lakeshores, coastal islands, and sandy shores with vegetation. They are never far from water, selecting a spot on the ground under dense cover from low tree branches, fallen logs, or boulders. They nest alone or in colonies, often with gulls and terns. In contrast, Common Mergansers nest in hollow trees.

During late summer, the Common Merganser is the most numerous merganser along the shorelines, occurring regularly in the inlets and bays adjacent to the outflows of streams and rivers. Later in the season, both species associate freely while in the bays and inlets of Prince William Sound, but along the outer coasts Red-breasted Mergansers tend to form pure flocks as the Common Merganser is usually absent from these waters.

Audubon climate models suggest that the Common Merganser will lose 72% of its current summer range by 2080. Its climate envelope shifts northward, but the forests that this species needs for nesting will not be as quick to respond to a warming climate. In contrast, the Red breasted Merganser is expected to do well in the changing climate as its envelope shifts northward.

Common Mergansers are widely distributed in the Chugach Region where they breed in the forests and winter in the marine environment.

Red-breasted Mergansers are common in the Chugach Region where they sometimes nest in mixed colonies with gulls and terns.

Ceremonial wooden vessel in the shape of a red-breasted merganser, and now curated at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA 2012). It was collected in Chenega (Birket-Smith 1953).

Traditional Use

Mergansers were valued by the Chugach people as both food and as a spiritual cleansing. In the case of the latter, “a man who had killed an enemy had to refrain from food and sexual intercourse for five days and nights unless he had eaten the heart of his victim. When the five days were over, he ate a sawbill duck [Common Merganser] before taking up the ordinary routine of life” (Birket-Smith 1953). In the case of the former, among goldeneyes, king sawbills [Red-breasted Merganser], big green-headed mergansers [Common Merganser], and black ducks [Black Scoters] that were commonly harvested sea ducks, “I got elders that tell me they [king sawbill] are the best, that they are just like a domestic duck if you get them.”

Mergansers were clearly appreciated. Birket-Smith (1953) reported that the most developed type of wooden eating bowl was carved in the shape of a bird and represented by two specimens collected from Chenega and Nuchek. The crest on the bird’s head seen on the Chenega bowl (see photograph; presumably Red-breasted Merganser) is missing on the specimen from Nuchek, and the beak is shorter (presumably Common Merganser). The broad rim of the bowl and the tail are decorated with grooves and inlaid beads (Birket-Smith 1953). Nuchek is a traditional village at Port Etches Bay on Hinchinbrook Island.