Longnose, or sea merganser. The wild duck merganser is an excellent flyer, swimmer, diver and fisherman See what “Long-nosed merganser” is in other dictionaries

The long-nosed merganser (merganser, Mergus serrator), a species of bird in the genus Merganser, family Anatidae. Weight 900-1300 g, body length 51-62 cm, wingspan 70-86 cm. During the mating season, the plumage of the head and back of males is black, sometimes with a greenish tint. The sides are gray with a transverse streaky pattern, the bottom is white. The beak and paws are red. On the head is a crest of thin feathers. Wide across the neck white stripe, a black stripe runs from the back of the head to the back. There are white spots on the upper side of the wing. In summer the male has a blackish-brown back.

The plumage of the female is mostly gray on top, the head is gray-red, with a long crest on the back of the head, and the belly is white. The entire neck is reddish-gray, on the chest the gray color turns into white, on top the female is brownish-gray. On the wing there is a white mirror, in front of which, through a dark stripe, is another parallel white stripe. The eyes of the male are red, the eyes of the female are brown.

Long-nosed Merganser dives well, usually spending 20-25 seconds under water. The flight is fast, with frequent wing beats, slightly whistling. It is difficult to rise from the water and with a running start. Does not form large flocks. Only during molting does it sometimes gather in groups of hundreds of birds.

It lives in the forest zone and part of the tundra of North America and Eurasia. More common on mountain rivers Oh. In lowland areas it is rare or absent. To the north of the breeding range - to the Arctic coasts and islands - nomadic and moulting birds are found. Long-nosed mergansers nest mainly along river banks in mountainous areas. Nests are located very differently - in niches in rocks or among stones, in hollows and half-hollows, in cavities under roots, in gullies, on the ground in bushes, under spruce paws or simply in the grass, if it is thick and high enough to cover the nest well and brooding female. The lining consists of brownish-gray fluff and debris. Females usually occupy the same nest from year to year. The clutch consists of 7-12 eggs, sometimes more. The shell color is yellowish, cream, pale brown. The female incubates the eggs for 26-35 days. Broods live mainly on rivers, the young fledgling at about two months of age. In July, males gather for the summer molt on tundra rivers, bays and shallow waters northern seas. Few of them molt in nesting areas in the forest zone.

Food consists of small fish, aquatic invertebrates, insects and their larvae, and rarely aquatic vegetation. Sometimes flocks of mergansers arrange collective pens for small fish in shallow waters. They winter almost exclusively in the seas (Caspian and Black, in the south of the Baltic, the coast Atlantic Ocean), mostly in shallow bays and river mouths, some winter on the lakes of Central Asia.

Mergus serrator

Description. A typical merganser is 52-58 cm long, weighing 800-1300 g, with a wingspan of 70-86 cm. The plumage of the drake is very variegated, the back, back of the neck are black, the sides, rump, tail are streamy-gray, the underside is white, the chest is wide buffy -black collar with white spots. The head is dark with a green metallic sheen; on the back of the head there is a double crest of unraveled thin feathers. Long thin beak, iris, legs - red. The female is brownish-gray, streaked and white underparts, with a shorter crest on a reddish-chestnut head. Her iris is brown, her beak and legs are reddish. On the wing of both sexes there is a large white mirror crossed out by a dark stripe.

During the current, the males almost plunge into the water, sticking out their heads and rumps, raising splashes and breakers, and rush after the females. More often than other mergansers, nests are located not in hollows, but in crevices, niches, burrows, and voids under stones. The clutch usually contains 8-12 yellowish, creamy, brownish eggs. Incubation lasts 31-35 days, the down jackets are dark with white bottoms and spots on the back, reddish heads with white “spectacles”. On rivers, broods often break up and mix, frightened by motor boats, so you can often find small groups of ducklings without females, females without chicks, or a female with a brood of 40-50 ducklings. The young fledge at 60-65 days. These mergansers feed mainly on fish; sometimes they organize flocks of driven hunts in shallow waters. Quite common, especially in the north of its range.

Spreading. North America from Alaska east to the western coast of Hudson Bay, Manitoba, Michigan. North to Kotzebue Sound, mid Yukon Valley, northern Mackenzie, northern Keewatin. South to British Columbia, central Alberta, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Massachusetts; southern Baffin Island, west coast of Greenland north to southern Melville Bay, East Coast Greenland north to Scoresby Bay, Iceland, Aleutian Islands. Eurasia from Scandinavia, Denmark, Holland east to the Bering Strait, Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Kamchatka. To the north in Europe to the Arctic coast, on Yamal to the 69th parallel, on the Gydan Peninsula to the 70th parallel, in the Yenisei valley to the 71st parallel, to lake. Taimyr, the mouths of the Lena, Yana, Kolyma, river mouths on the northern coast Chukotka Peninsula. South to Holland, south and west coasts Baltic Sea, districts of Pskov and Vologda, Belaya and Ufa basins, Kokchetav region, Balkhash, Markakol, Khamar-Daban, the middle Amur basin. Isolated nesting has been recorded on the islands of Karkinitsky Bay (Black Sea), on Lakes Sevan and Issyk-Kul. Islands: Faroe Islands, Ireland, northern part of Great Britain, Komandorsky Islands, Sakhalin Island, northern Kuril Islands.

Winters in sea coasts temperate zone and subtropics.

Habitat. It nests mainly along river banks in mountainous areas, and in some places along sea coasts; here birds can form fairly dense nesting colonies.

Voice. Very silent. During mating displays, the male emits a muffled two-syllable “yee-yeeee”, and the female responds by repeating the monosyllabic “crack, crash...”. The female's screams when worried are a hoarse, rough "Hrrr, Hrrr...".

Literature

Stepanyan L.S. Abstract of the ornithological fauna of Russia and adjacent territories M.: Akademkniga, 2003, 808 p.
Koblik E.A. Diversity of birds (based on materials from the exhibition of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University), part. 1. M.: Moscow State University Publishing House. 2001. 384 p.
A.B. Linkov Game waterfowl of Russia State Institution "Tsentrokhotkontrol", 2002 - 268 p. from ill.
Ryabitsev V.K. Birds of the Urals, the Urals and Western Siberia. Ekaterinburg: Ural Publishing House. Univ. 2008. - 634 p.

Long-nosed merganser (Mergus serrator)

Class: Birds

Order: Anseriformes

Family: Ducks

Genus: Merganser

Appearance

The average merganser is large duck, the size of a mallard, with a narrow, long beak. The body length reaches 0.5 m. The wingspan is 67-86 cm.

The weight of males is 1000-1300 g. The head, back and nape are black with a green tint, the neck and abdomen are white, there is a fine streaky pattern on the sides, the chest is red and white. On the back of the head the drake has a double crest of thin feathers. The beak, iris and legs are red. Unlike the greater merganser, the crop is brown with black spots. In the upper jaw from leading edge nostrils have 18 or more teeth (the great merganser has 13-15). The female is ash gray with a brown head and neck, with a border of brown and gray colors the neck is blurred, the back is gray-brown. It differs from female mergansers in the absence of a white spot under the beak. The female's crest is shorter than that of the male. The long, thin beak helps in capturing prey and resembles the shape of a saw.

Habitat

It lives in the northern parts of North America and Eurasia from the tundra to the forest-steppe, wintering along the sea coasts of the temperate zone and subtropics.

Lifestyle

The long-nosed merganser is a migratory bird. It does not form large flocks even on migration. The flight is fast, with frequent flapping of the wings, but from the water the bird takes a running start, noisy and heavy. Dives perfectly.

Unlike the great merganser, it makes nests exclusively on the ground, preferring various kinds natural shelters - heaps of stones, wood and reed driftwood, basal niches of trees; It usually nests openly on islands far from the coast. Gravitates towards colonies of gull birds. In optimal locations it can form colonies of 5–20 nests.

In addition to fish, which constitutes the main diet of this bird, it feeds on crustaceans, aquatic insects and worms. Often several long-nosed mergansers hunt at once, immersing part of their head in the water and looking out for prey.

The average life expectancy is more than 10 years.

Reproduction

Mergansers begin laying eggs from the end of May. A normal clutch contains 6–11 beige eggs covered with gray down. Double clutches and laying eggs in the nests of other species are common. Incubation lasts 26–28 days.

The behavior of the broods is similar to that of the merganser broods, but the chicks never climb onto the back of the female. Families prefer to stay near rocky ridges no further than 10–20 m from the shore, in the shallowest places. Reaches sexual maturity at 2–3 years of age. Drakes after graduation mating season They fly off to molt to the largest bodies of water within the nesting area.

Captivity

They are practically not kept in captivity; usually preference is given to the Great Merganser, which is less whimsical and easier to contact with humans. Even in zoos, seeing the Long-nosed Merganser is very rare.

The long-nosed merganser (Mergus serrator) belongs to the Anatidae family, Anseriformes order.

External signs of the long-nosed merganser.

The long-nosed merganser is a diving duck. Slightly reminiscent of a pintail, but distinguished by its long, thin beak and plumage color. The body is about 58 cm long. The wings have a span of 71 to 86 centimeters. Weight: 1000 – 1250 g. The beak is red, the head is black with a green tint and the white collar gives it a unique style. The male is easily recognized by the double crest on the back of the head and a wide dark band along the craw. The chest is spotted, reddish-black. In addition, it has gray sides with a streaky pattern. There is a noticeable pattern of spots on the upper side of the wings. A black stripe runs along the top of the neck and along the back.

The female's plumage is mostly gray. The head with a long tuft at the back of the head is colored in a gray-red hue. The belly is white. Gray – red color the neck without sharp boundaries turns first into gray, and on the chest into white. The upperparts are brownish-gray. The “mirror” is white, bordered by a dark line, after which another stripe is visible white. The color of the plumage of a male in summer plumage is the same as that of a female, only the back is blackish-brown. A third white stripe runs along the top of the wing. It does not have the light line between the eye and beak that a duck has. The male's iris is red, the female's is brownish.

Female

Young long-nosed mergansers have the same plumage color as the female, but they have a short crest, and the entire plumage is of darker tones. Legs yellowish-brown. Males at the age of one year have an intermediate plumage color between that of males and females.

Listen to the voice of the long-nosed merganser.

Habitats of the long-nosed merganser.

Long-nosed mergansers live along the wooded shores of deep lakes, small rivers and moderate streams. Distributed in the tundra, boreal and temperate forests, and are also found in more saline waters, such as sheltered shallow bays, bays, straits or estuaries with a sandy rather than muddy substrate. They prefer narrow channels rather than open spaces waters, stay near islands or islets and spits, as well as near protruding rocks or grassy banks.

Female and male

After nesting, mergansers spend the winter at sea, feeding in coastal and sea waters, estuaries, bays and brackish lagoons. Long-nosed mergansers choose clean, shallow water bodies where heavy waves do not form. On migration they stop at large freshwater lakes.

Distribution of the long-nosed merganser.

Long-nosed mergansers are spreading in northern regions North American continent, and then move south to the Great Lakes. Found in the south of Northern Eurasia, in Greenland, Iceland, Great Britain, in the countries of Eastern Europe. They live in the northern and eastern regions of China and northern Japan. The wintering range is even more expanded and includes the coast of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean along North America, the territory of Central Europe and the Mediterranean. Black Sea coast, southern part the Caspian Sea, the coast in the south of Pakistan and Iran, as well as the coastal areas of the Korean coast. Long-nosed mergansers fly to winter in the south of the Baltic Sea and on the coast of Europe, forming huge flocks.

Nesting and breeding of the long-nosed merganser.

Long-nosed mergansers prefer to nest along the banks of mountain rivers or on islands from April or May (later in the northern regions) in separate pairs or colonies. The nest is built at a distance of about 25 meters from the water in various places. A secluded place is found in natural depressions on the ground, under boulders, in niches near rocks, among trees or exposed roots, in tree hollows, in gullies, artificial nests, among reeds or on floating reed mats. Hollows or artificial nests are used with an entrance with a diameter of about 10 cm and a recess size of about 30-40 cm.

Sometimes mergansers make a nest simply on the ground, hiding it under bushes, low-hanging branches or in thick grass.

Ducks of this species choose a secluded place so that the female sitting on the eggs remains unnoticed. Down and plant debris are used as lining. Females nest on permanent place for a number of years. The clutch contains 7–12 eggs with a creamy, light brown or cream colored shell. The eggs measure 5.6–7.1 x 4.0–4.8 cm. The female incubates the clutch for 26–35 days. Broods feed in rivers. Young mergansers at the age of two months make independent flights. In July, males gather in flocks and fly to shallow sea bays and tundra rivers to molt. Males often molt in nesting areas located in forests. Long-nosed mergansers breed after reaching the age of 2–3 years.

Female with brood

Feeding of the long-nosed merganser.

The main food of the long-nosed merganser is mainly small, marine or freshwater fish, and a small amount of plants and aquatic invertebrates such as crustaceans (shrimps and crayfish), worms, insect larvae. In shallow water, ducks feed in flocks, organizing a collective hunt for fish fry. For the winter, long-nosed mergansers fly to river mouths and to the shores of shallow bays.

Peculiarities of behavior of the long-nosed merganser.

Long-nosed Mergansers - in full migratory birds, although in temperate regions they make small short movements to nearby coasts or remain in feeding areas throughout the year. Adult birds often gather in groups on beaches when the breeding season ends.

Reasons for the decline in the number of long-nosed merganser.

Long-nosed mergansers are the object of hunting and can be shot. Birds are hunted in North America and Denmark, although this species is not very popular for sport hunting. Fishermen and fish farmers blame this bird species for depleting fish stocks.

Long-nosed mergansers are also accidentally caught and entangled in fishing nets.

Changes in breeding sites, construction of dams and deforestation, habitat degradation, and pollution of water bodies are the main threats to the species. Long-nosed mergansers are also susceptible to avian influenza, so new outbreaks are a major concern. Conservation status long-nosed merganser.

The long-nosed merganser is protected under the EU Birds Directive Annex II. Breeding densities of this species have increased on the outer islands of the archipelago in southwestern Finland as a result of the removal of feral American mink. In order to preserve the species, artificial nests will be placed in suitable places in which the birds breed their offspring. Strict implementation of legislation on drilling and transportation of petroleum products in coastal areas is necessary. In addition, measures should be taken to reduce the catch of juvenile fish. Important areas for protecting the long-nosed merganser are measures to prevent changes in the habitat.

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Appearance . Medium sized duck. There is a thin crest on the head. Male: the plumage on the back and head is black, the abdomen, base of the wing and neck are white, the side part is gray with small transverse streaks, the crop is brown with black spots, the paws and beak are red. Female: gray plumage, brown neck, light belly, white spots on the wings and throat. A peculiarity is the blurred border between the brown neck and the light goiter.

Lifestyle . Long-nosed merganser - resident sea islands and coasts, tundra, taiga and mountain lakes and rec.

Common migratory bird.

For nesting it chooses open, sometimes forested sea islands, river banks and lakes. The nest itself is hidden in rock crevices, under stones, in thickets of bushes, in driftwood, reeds, but it can also build it completely openly, close to the water. Lined with dark down. Laying is carried out in mid-May, in the northern regions a little later. At this time, from 7 to 12 pale olive eggs appear in the nest. The female incubates very tightly, does not get up from the nest even in danger - a person can easily come up and pick her up with his hands.

It never gathers in large flocks, even on migration. It flies quickly, often flaps its wings, but takes off from the water very difficult, taking a long time to run up. Swims and dives very well.

It eats mainly fish. It is not subject to commercial hunting.

Similar species. The difference from the great merganser is a brown crop and gray sides, and in the female there is an unclear boundary between the color of the plumage of the abdomen and neck. It also differs from the scaly merganser in the color of its crop and the characteristic pattern on its side. It is impossible to distinguish the females of these two species in nature.