Hooded Merganser Crests

Here are a couple pictures of Hooded Mergansers, male and female. The males are black and white around the head and neck while the females have more "earth tone" coloring. In the 1st picture, the male has a large, almost circular white patch on the side of his head, and in the 2nd picture the male has more of a white line on the side of his head.

While sometimes there's simply variation in individual plumage that can account for different appearances, and other times there are subspecies where whole populations look quite different from each other, but neither of these is what's going on here. Male Hooded Mergansers can raise their crests to present a large white circle, or they can lower them to present a smaller white line. Generally speaking, male Hooded Mergansers can go from 1 look or the other in seconds, making them the quick-change artists of the waterfowl world.

The strikingly different appearance of a raised versus lowered crest of Hooded Mergansers sometimes leads beginning birders to think these are different species, at least until they see them "transform". 

January 27, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 263367804, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


January 28, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 263480419, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)



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