Swimming and diving with grace and energy, red-breasted mergansers arrive in fall but save their complex, contorting courtship display for early spring.

A ragged-crested dark green head and reddish brown breast mark the male, along with a dark back and gray sides.

Females share the ragged crest; their rufous heads and gray bodies may make separation from common merganser females difficult. Their bills, however, are noticeably slimmer.

Red-breasted mergansers are common from fall through spring, mostly in coastal bays and estuaries but occasionally on the open ocean.

Hear the call of the red-breasted merganser

Photo by ©Greg Gilson