Another species has joined the flock of “snowbirds” coming back to Florida for the winter.
They’re Hooded Mergansers, and they’re very colorful members of the duck family. The males have a black and white crest they can raise, which makes their heads look oblong and skinny. The females are have similar crests, but they are brown.
The group I photographed on an overcast Black Friday were in a very small retention pond in Oviedo, but a place they apparently return to each winter.
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