Species: Lophodytes cucullatus

Hooded Merganser

Species

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Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

A small (length 46 cm) duck with a thin serrated bill and a puffy crest; adult male has a black head with a large white patch on each side, a dark back, brown flanks, and a white chest with two black bars on each side; adult female is brownish overall, with a yellowish lower mandible; first winter male resembles female; in flight, both sexes show black-and-white inner secondaries (Peterson 1980, NGS 1983).

Classification

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Craniata

Class

Aves

Order

Anseriformes

Family

Anatidae

Genus

Lophodytes

NatureServe

Source:
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.104711

Classification

Other Global Common Names

Mergo Cresta Blanca - harle couronné

Informal Taxonomy

Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Waterfowl

Formal Taxonomy

Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Anseriformes - Anatidae - Lophodytes

Ecology and Life History

Migration

false - true - true - In the east, northward migration occurs mainly in February-May. Returns to breeding areas in west mostly in late March-April. In the east, southward migration occurs mostly in September-December. Most movement to wintering areas occurs in November in the west.

Non-migrant

false

Locally Migrant

true

Food Comments

Eats mostly small fishes, crayfishes and other crustaceans, and aquatic insects obtained by diving underwater (Palmer 1976).

Reproduction Comments

Clutch size is 6-18 (some nests may include eggs of wood duck or goldeneye in some areas). Incubation lasts 29-37 days, by female. Young first fly at estimated age of 10 weeks. First breeds at about 2 years (Terres 1980, Palmer 1976). Nesting is dispersed; in Minnesota, installation of nest boxes produced a nesting density of about 0.4 nests per sq km (Zicus 1990).

Length

Weight

680

Conservation Status

NatureServe Global Status Rank

Global Status Last Reviewed

1996-11-21

Global Status Last Changed

1996-11-21

Other Status

LC - Least concern

Distribution

Conservation Status Map

Global Range

H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - BREEDS: southeastern Alaska, central British Columbia, and southwestern Alberta south to southwestern Oregon, central Idaho, and northwestern Montana; and from central Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia, south to southeastern Kansas, northern Louisiana, northern Georgia, and (rarely) Florida. WINTERS: along Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf slopes, mainly from southeastern Alaska to northern Baja California, and New England to Florida and west to northern Mexico, irregularly in the interior of southern Canada and the U.S., and in the northern Bahamas and Greater Antilles (AOU 1983); rare in Hawaii.

Global Range Code

Global Range Description

>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)

ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.104711