Campaigning. Add 2–3 inches of wood shavings to the bottom of the box. The breeding territory of common mergansers lies mainly in Canada.

See our toolkit for ways to campaign with us to protect nature and save wildlife. Visit the store. Broods often intermix, producing mixed broods of up to 40 or more young, tended by one or more adult females. Unlike common and hooded mergansers, which usually nest in tree cavities, red-breasted mergansers nest on the ground in highly diversified sites. Common mergansers nest in tree cavities, nest boxes, cliff crevices, and on the ground, generally near clear-water rivers in forested regions and on mountainous terrain.

Its breeding habitat is freshwater lakes and rivers across northern North America, Greenland, Europe, and the Palearctic.

Common Mergansers are common breeders in appropriate habitat on both sides of the Cascades. They usually nest in cavities in dead trees, sometimes using abandoned woodpecker nests, and also use specially made nest boxes. Latin: Lophodytes cucullatus . They do not appear to breed in the dry regions of the Columbia Basin, but non-breeding birds can be found there in the summer. Average weight: M 3.64 lbs., F 2.73 lbs. Description. Description. In addition these ducks do make use of artificial nest boxes when available. Latin: Mergus merganser americanus . Use wood stock rough-cut on both sides so birds can grip surfaces. Hooded mergansers prefer forested wetland systems, where they nest in tree cavities or nest boxes and lay an average of 9-11 eggs. Hooded Mergansers nest in cavities 10 to 50 feet up a tree or in nest boxes. Female common mergansers lay an average of 9-12 eggs. Sometimes they nest on the ground. Common Mergansers nest less frequently in rock crevices, old sheds, chimneys, lighthouses, holes in banks, holes in the ground, hollow logs, and burrows. Red-breasted mergansers dive and swim underwater. The Hooded is the smallest of our three native merganser species, and often seems to be the least numerous, as it tends to live around swamps and wooded ponds where it may be overlooked. Avoid disturbing nesting females early in the egg-laying stage. They are most common in forests around the Great Lakes. The female lays 10 to 12 eggs, and commonly lays eggs in the nests of other Hooded Mergansers and those of other cavity-nesting ducks. Hooded Mergansers breed in forested wetlands throughout the eastern half of North America and the Pacific Northwest, and may also nest in treeless wetlands where people have put up nest boxes. So do loons. Females nest in cavities found in trees, usually very near water. Hens lay eggs in the nests of other ducks and vice versa. Common mergansers nest in tree cavities, nest boxes, cliff crevices, and on the ground, generally near clear-water rivers in forested regions and on mountainous terrain. The British call this bird the "Goosander." Mergansers are our only ducks that specialize in eating fish. Average length: M 18.1 in, F 17 . The somewhat smaller and ground-nesting red-breasted merganser (M. serrator) has a similar range. When the ducklings hatch, they jump from the tree and tumble to the ground! Average weight: M 1.6 lbs, F 1.5 lbs . In some parts of Europe, with artificial nesting sites provided, the species has become a common nesting bird along city waterfronts; this has not yet happened in North America. Moving forward, you can learn about and buy all Nest products in one place: the Google Store. Talk to a Google Nest expert at . Hooded mergansers renew pair bonds yearly and split up at the start of incubation.

Once mated, the female merganser (or hen) nests … Hooded Merganser eggs can be reliably told apart from Wood Duck eggs by their unusually thick eggshells. It usually nests in hollow trees in north temperate to subarctic regions and migrates to more southerly rivers.

Very often, they will come back to the same nesting sites used in the past.