Hooded Mergansers return for the winter

Roger Simmons,

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.

A female Hooded Merganser gets an escort from a trio of males in an Oviedo pond in November 2023.
A male Hooded Merganser shows off his colors in a pond in Oviedo in November 2023.
A male Hooded Merganser shows off its tell-tale black and white hood in an Oviedo pond in November 2023.
A female Hooded Merganser, not quite as colorful as her male counterpart, still strikes a regal pose while swimming in Oviedo pond in November 2023.
A male Hooded Merganser preens in a pond in Oviedo in November 2023.
A male and female Hooded Mergansers pass by each other in an Oviedo pond in November 2023.
A pair of male Hooded Mergansers swim in an Oviedo pond in November 2023.
A male Hooded Merganser preens in a pond in Oviedo in November 2023.
Hooded Mergansers, like this one in Oviedo in November 2023, dive under water to hunt for fish.
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