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Nature's Solace
Celebrating Nature in the Pacific Northwest
Hooded Merganser - - - Lophodytes cucullatus
Hooded mergansers make quite the striking couple -- him with his hood and handsome black and white patterned coat and her with her punk "do". How can the female resist his courtship dance?
Listen to Bird Note's description of the mating ritual and his "sexy" croak.
The result? A brood of 7 - 13 little ones born in a woodpecker's tree cavity. On a day in the Nisqually NWR (May 20), I was lucky enough to see two females perched on the tree limb outside the nest opening. I am not sure of the story of these females, but on the pond nearby was a female with her nine ducklings.
The start of the hooded merganser's life is crazy brave. The mom waits until all the eggs have been laid to incubate them. This ensures that they will all hatch near the same time. Mom stays with her babies their first day after hatching, feeding them and "talking" to them so they get used to her voice.
On day two, she leaves the nest and calls to her chicks from below. Hearing their mom, the two day old ducklings follow her voice. But first they need to climb up the inner tree wall to the opening. For this purpose, the ducklings have claws at the end of their webbed feet. Once at the opening, they peer out to the foreign world. Their nest typically is 10 - 50 feet high, but has been known to be 90 feet. The only way for the newly born ducklings to join their mom is by taking the leap out the hole to the ground below where mom is waiting. Then it's a trek to the water which may be nearby or has been know to be a mile away!
Here's an incredible video of that fateful second day in the life of the hooded merganser newborns!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDJw43BJtCE
Once in the water, the ducklings are able to find their own food - skimming near the surface for insects or making small dives. Although mom won't have the worry and responsibility of feeding her babies, she will guide and guard them for a few weeks. The ducklings will fledge in about 70 days. The male stays with the female only until she finishes laying her eggs.
It's not unusual for the female to lay eggs
in another hooded merganser nest or that of another species, such as the wood duck.
Two females perched on a tree limb near the nest cavity.
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