Hooded Merganser

About the Hooded Merganser

The hooded merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) is a species of fish-eating duck in the subfamily Anatinae. It is the only extant species in the genus Lophodytes. The genus name derives from Greek: lophos meaning 'crest', and dutes meaning 'diver'. The bird is striking in appearance; both sexes have crests that they can raise or lower, and the breeding plumage of the male is handsomely patterned and colored. The hooded merganser has a sawbill but is not classified as a typical merganser.

Hooded mergansers are the second-smallest species of merganser, with only the smew of Europe and Asia being smaller, and it also is the only merganser whose native habitat is restricted to North America. The hooded merganser was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Mergus cucullatus. Linnaeus based his account on the "round-crested duck" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in the first volume of his The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands that was published between 1729 and 1732. Linnaeus specified the type location as America... Wikipedia →