Hooded Merganser
Lophodytes cucullatus

As the holiday season approaches, Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) will begin appearing around ponds, lakes, and rivers in Central Texas as winter migrants. This species is the only member of the genus Lophodytes, a name derived from the Greek words lophos (crest) and dutes (diver), aptly describing the small diving duck with a prominent fan-shaped crest.

The Hooded Merganser is the smallest of the three North American merganser species, which also include the Common and Red-breasted Mergansers. It is the only species that breeds exclusively in North America.

While secretive by nature, once spotted, they are easily identifiable and unforgettable. A male in breeding plumage is particularly striking, with a white fan-shaped crest bordered in black, a black-and-white striped chest and back, bright yellow eyes, and rust-colored sides. Females and immatures are brown with a cinnamon-colored crest resembling a splayed paintbrush and dark eyes. These ducks often join flocks of other small divers like Bufflehead and Ruddy Ducks. When in flight, they produce a rapid series of truncated whistles, signaling their swift wingbeats as they fly overhead.

Though Hooded Mergansers may have been nesting in Texas for years, their secretive nature has kept them largely unnoticed. They are even more sensitive to disturbance than the Wood Duck, making sightings of nesting birds a rare occurrence, though such observations have been increasing.

Unlike dabbling ducks, Hooded Mergansers swim low in the water. With their legs positioned far back on their bodies, they are efficient divers but awkward on land. Their diet includes small fish, aquatic insects, crustaceans (particularly crayfish), amphibians, vegetation, and mollusks. This broad diet sets them apart from other mergansers, which primarily eat fish. Hooded Mergansers use their keen eyesight to locate prey underwater, with specially adapted eyes that can change their refractive properties for improved vision. Additionally, a transparent “nictitating membrane” serves as an extra eyelid, protecting their eyes while submerged.

Hooded Mergansers propel themselves with their feet and use their slender, serrated bills to grasp prey. Ducklings begin diving for food almost immediately after leaving the nest, though their dives are short and shallow during the first week. They also feed by swimming with just their heads underwater.

To attract a mate, males raise their crests and expand the white patch, often while shaking their heads. Their most dramatic display is head-throwing, in which they jerk their heads backward to touch their backs while raising their crests and emitting a croaky call. Females court by bobbing their heads and making a hoarse “gack” sound. Once the female begins incubating eggs, the male abandons her, and it remains unclear whether they reunite in subsequent breeding seasons.

Females often lay eggs in the nests of other ducks, both their own species and others, a behavior known as brood parasitism, similar to that of Brown-headed Cowbirds. As a result, other cavity-nesting duck species may also parasitize Hooded Merganser nests. Females can lay up to 13 eggs in a clutch, but nests with as many as 44 eggs have been found.