Common Merganser - male

These pictures were taken on April 5th, 2009 in lake Huron, near our home. They are a large diving duck common in the northern hemisphere eating mainly fish. Young leave the nest when they are about 24 hours old. They forage for themselves, eating small aquatic insects for the first 12 days or so and then switch over to small fish. They are such good fishermen that gulls and even Bald Eagles will try to steal their fish when they surface. I wasn't lucky enough to get a good shot of a female on this photoshoot, but stay tuned, I'll get one shortly.