Mergus serrator
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The red-breasted merganser (Mergus serrator) is a duck species that is native to much of the temperate to subarctic Northern Hemisphere. The red breast that gives the species its common name is only displayed by males in breeding plumage. Individuals fly rapidly, and feed by diving from the surface to pursue aquatic animals underwater, using serrated bills to capture slippery fish. They migrate each year from breeding sites on lakes and rivers to their mostly coastal wintering areas, making them the most frequent species in the genus Mergus to frequent saltwater regularly. The worldwide population of this species is stable, though it is threatened in some areas by habitat loss and other factors.
The red-breasted merganser was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the current binomial name Mergus serrator. The species is monotypic; no subspecies are recognised. Birds breeding in Greenland were sometimes distinguised as a subspecies M. s. schioleri in the past on the basis of averaging very marginally larger, but this is no longer accepted as distinct.
The genus name Mergus is... Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prague Zoo | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 2 | Tierpark Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Slimbridge Wetland Centre | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Fort Worth Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Santillana Zoo | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 6 | Alpenzoo Innsbruck | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 7 | Rákosův pavilon | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 8 | Velemlokárium | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 9 | akwarium warszawskiego ZOO | 🇵🇱 Poland |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red-breasted Merganser sighting in Boston on a given day, based on 6,100 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 59th most-seen of the 283 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November to March
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Red-breasted Merganser in Boston on a given day, against under 5% in May to October, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-breasted Merganser sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 57
Of the 57 cities where we can rate Red-breasted Merganser sightings, Boston ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Sendai (Japan, about 20%), Toronto (Canada, about 20%) and Dalian (China, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-breasted Merganser is recorded against all the birds logged in Boston (6,100 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
