Common Merganser Mergus merganser Goosander

Goosander Mergus merganser
(aka Common Merganser)

Goosander, Dezadeash Lake, Yukon, Canada, May 2009 - click on image for a larger view

Dezadeash Lake, Yukon, Canada
May 2009

The Common Merganser or Goosander is distributed across the temperate and sub-arctic zones of the northern hemisphere.

There are three sub-species with M. m. americanus shown here and found in North America. It has a darker base to the bill and a squarer head than the other sub-species.

The nominate sub-species is distributed across the north of Eurasia from Iceland to Japan while the sub-species M. m. orientalis is distributed from central Asia to western China.

Photo 1 shows a male while photos 2 and 3 show a female. Photo 4 shows three males and a female in flight.

NatureServe have a distribution map for the North American population.

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