Subject: Nisqually
Date: Jun 23 12:59:13 2000
From: Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney - festuca at olywa.net


Charlie Wright age 11 wrote:

We also had an odd-looking merganser species in the Nisqually
River. I hesitate to call it a hybrid between Red-breasted and
Common Merganser. Is this possible? There was also a family of
Common Mergansers. The parents (actually 2 females taking care
of the little ones) chased this bird away. The bird looked similar to
the ducklings (merganserlings?) but had a white breast and was
larger. Good Birding!
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Charlie -

What you likely saw was a male merganser (from your description,
I couldn't tell which species...) that was in 'eclipse plumage'. After
the spring breeding season, most drakes molt into Basic plumage.
This is opposite of many songbirds, which molt into Basic plumage
in the winter.

Toward the end of the summer, the drakes will molt again, and come
into their Alternate plumage, with the bright colors we associate with
the descriptions of 'males' in the bird ID books. Check the books,
and see if this doesn't explain your sighting.

Hope this helps,

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net