041925 Muskogee Edition, Birding Today

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Oklahoma Migratory Species Profile: Common Merganser

This merganser is often confused with the Red-breasted Merganser, but is it heavier and has a thicker bill.  The non-breeding adult also has a very contrasting white patch under the chin and at the throat.  In flight, it also shows more body white.

A large duck of mountains, lakes, and rivers, the Common Merganser is a tree, under tree root, nest box, or crevice nester that eats fish or other invertebrates.  They commonly will form a semicircle, forcing fish into the shallower water, making it easier to capture them.  These elegant birds are striking, with an unusual appearance that gives them a name for bad hair days.  They tend to sit low in the water, and besides the attractive colors, they have a serrated bill that they use for holding onto assorted seafood.  These diving ducks will winter as far south as Mexico, and at one time or another spend some of their time within the US keeping away from waters that freeze.




               Common Merganser in Cardiff
                           123rf.com

The male will abandon the family once the young hatch, and the female will stay with them for about a week after they fledge.  There is a photo on the internet that shows a female Common Merganser with 76 young, but most of these were adopted or just temporarily in her care.  A hen will lay up to a dozen or so eggs.  These birds utilize a creche system, which is basically a day care center where a matriarchal female is in charge of overseeing the young.  The sawbill becomes sexually mature at two years of age.

This species is climate threatened, and like many others are expanding their range in a northeasterly direction.

These ducks have been known to swallow large fish nearly a foot in length, and in the winter, these ducks can form large rafts.  They don't move well on land, but when forced to run from a predator, they often take an upright position.

Oklahoma Vagrants: Royal Tern

Our New Year's Day present in 1989 was the arrival of a Royal Tern at Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City, then in 2008, it managed to return.  In 2008, Red Slough was the lucky location for this stately tern.  Sadly, it has not been seen since, so what might we be waiting for?

The Royal Tern is a large tern with a bright orange-red bill.  It is common, and found on open salt water along beaches, oceanfront inlets, and backwater bays.  They are also plunge divers usually in salt water, and very rarely found in fresh water.  These neotropical migrants have a completely black cap during breeding season only, and for the remainder of the year appear to resemble a bald man, with black around the ears and the back of the head.

They are usually present year round in their breeding range, and should be expected on the Gulf coast and the southern Atlantic Ocean.

                                                                   Royal Terns (rear)
                                                         South Padre Island, Texas 2014

These vagrants are colonial nesters that usually breed at four years of age and only lay one egg, very rarely two.  When the young hatch, they leave the nest and join others in a creche, which is a group of young birds.  The parents continue to feed them, each bird recognizing family members by the sound of their voice.  The young will migrate south with the parents, some heading as far as Ecuador and Argentina.

This species sometimes feeds at night, mostly eating fish and small crustaceans, as well as squid and shrimp.  On the Atlantic coast, they favor blue crab.