Your Birding Month

Why Red-breasted Merganser is our Bird of the Month! Plus, how Montagu’s Harrier got its name

We are blessed with so many exquisite ducks that it is hard to pick a winner of a theoretical beauty contest. However, surely in anyone’s top few would come the Red-breasted Merganser, and particularly the drake. Much of what elevates this duck above others is its shape (though the plumage is not bad). Take that bill, for instance, so narrow it makes you think of the snout of the Gharial or Longnose Gar rather than a normal duck bill. Like the snout of those two beasties (the crocodile and fish) the merganser’s bill has evolved to grasp slippery fish. Unlike them, it lacks the rows of sharp pointed teeth, of course, but like other ‘sawbills’, instead, the bill is serrated to provide the equivalent grip.

And, in addition to that fancy red bill, both male and female mergansers have that punky, spikey, shaggy crest on the back of the head, which lifts them still further above most of our attractive, but less extraordinary looking ducks.

Red-breasted Mergansers are most commonly found around our coasts, especially throughout the winter. But, unlike most of our ‘seaducks’, they breed in decent numbers in the UK, too, especially in the north and west of Scotland and in north-western England, northern Wales, and Northern Ireland. It may surprise you to learn that nearly 3,000 pairs of Red-breasted Merganser nest in the UK (with 9,000 wintering individuals). Enjoy them at their finest, in their breeding finery and displaying. But remember, as with most ducks, by summertime they will be scruffing up and heading for ‘eclipse’ plumage. So, if you can, seek them now or wait until the autumn, when they cluster up once more around our coasts.