{"id":4265,"date":"2012-02-01T11:13:21","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T18:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=4265"},"modified":"2025-09-12T07:26:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T12:26:35","slug":"red-breasted-merganser-lifting-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/02\/01\/red-breasted-merganser-lifting-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-breasted Merganser Lifting Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

The weather outside hasn’t been good for bird photography today but since I am always behind on editing I thought I’d process this Red-breasted Merganser image that I took in Florida a few years ago.<\/p>\n

\"Red-breasted Red-breasted Merganser lifting off –\u00a0<\/strong>Nikon D200, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 260mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the Mergansers that I have photographed Red-breasted Mergansers are the ones that I have taken images of most often.<\/p>\n

In Florida I would see them most\u00a0frequently during the winter\u00a0through late spring feeding in shallow lagoons or out in the\u00a0Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

The “serrator” in their Latin name comes from their serrated bill which is used to grasp the small fish they feed on the “red-breasted” part of their common name is because there breast does turn reddish when they are in breeding plumage.<\/p>\n

This merganser was in nonbreeding plumage when I photographed it.<\/p>\n

I had been kneeling in the water of a tidal lagoon photographing this bird and several Royal Terns that were giving me great views of their mating displays when I noticed that the merganser seemed about to take off in flight so I trained my lens on the Red-breasted Merganser and caught this lift off shot. They sure take off fast!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Red-breasted Merganser photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The weather outside hasn’t been good for bird photography today but since I am always behind on editing I thought I’d process this Red-breasted Merganser image that I took in Florida a few years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,2000,133],"tags":[5132,4052,4122,173,3997,4282,4705,4704,277,4246,140,4017,165,3792,2063],"class_list":["post-4265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-red-breasted-mergansers","tag-coastal","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-gulf-coast","tag-lagoon","tag-lift-off","tag-merganser","tag-mergansers","tag-mergus-serrator","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-red-breasted-merganser","tag-sand","tag-spring","tag-take-off","tag-waterfowl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/red-breasted-merganser-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-2944.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-16N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14480,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/03\/01\/feeding-habits-of-red-breasted-mergansers\/","url_meta":{"origin":4265,"position":0},"title":"Feeding Habits of Red-breasted Mergansers","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"According to Birds of North America there are four foraging methods used by Red-breasted Mergansers which are Cooperative Herding, Individual Search, Shallow Diving and Deep Diving.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red-breasted Merganser diving into a wave on the Gulf Coast, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/red-breasted-merganser-wave-mia-mcpherson-8561.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/red-breasted-merganser-wave-mia-mcpherson-8561.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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