Bird of the Week – Common Merganser

The Common Merganser breeds south of the Brooks Range in Alaska, in wooded areas along clearwater streams. The female has that excellent spiky hairdo feather-do; the male is a bit plainer, but both have the bright orange bill that is a good field mark for these birds, although you want to be sure you don’t have a Red-breasted. They are one of the less common ducks in Alaska, but you can usually find them canoeing a clear water river. Most years there’s a pair on the West Fork of the Upper Chena River. This is a fish-eating duck; that long…