Common Mergansers – Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography

Common Mergansers are long-bodied diving ducks with long, thin reddish serrated bills, orange feet and legs and dark eyes. The males have greenish, black heads, white bodies and black backs in breeding plumage. Females have gray bodies with cinnamon colored heads with shaggy crests

Male Common Merganser in nonbreeding plumage

By Mia McPherson|2024-03-13T10:40:34-05:00November 27th, 2012|Categories: Birds, Common Mergansers, Davis County, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Utah|Tags: Common Merganser, drake, male, marsh, mergansers, Mergus merganser, nonbreeding plumage, saw-bill, wetlands|

Last week I saw quite a few Common Mergansers at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge but I wasn't able to get close enough to them to get any quality images but they reminded me of images I had been able to take of Common Mergansers several years ago at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.

Things are getting Ducky in Utah!

By Mia McPherson|2024-03-28T05:06:28-05:00October 1st, 2011|Categories: Birds, Buffleheads, Cinnamon Teals, Common Goldeneyes, Common Mergansers, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Gadwalls, Greater Scaups, Mallards, Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, Red-breasted Mergansers, Ring-necked Ducks, Salt Lake Valley|Tags: Anas acuta, Anas platyrhynchos, autumn, Aythya collaris, Aythya marila, Bucephala albeola, Bucephala clangula, Bufflehead, Cinnamon Teal, Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Davis County, Gadwall, Greater Scaup, Mallard, Mareca strepera, Mergus merganser, Mergus serrator, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Red-breasted Merganser, Ring-necked Duck, Salt Lake County, Spatula clypeata, Spatula cyanoptera|

Another wonderful change that I have been seeing is that a variety of duck species have been arriving at the Great Salt Lake

Common and Red-breasted Mergansers

By Mia McPherson|2024-03-13T10:33:58-05:00March 20th, 2011|Categories: Bird ID, Common Mergansers, Davis County, Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Red-breasted Mergansers, Utah|Tags: bill, bird ID, Common Merganser, crest, crests, diving ducks, duck, ducks, eye color, merganser, mergansers, Mergus merganser, Mergus serrator, Red-breasted Merganser, serrated bill, water|

Mergansers are considered "diving ducks" and one of the things the three species of mergansers found in North America all have in common are their serrated bills.