RED-BREASTED MERGANSER 

 ( Mergus serrator ) 



[DA: Toppet Skallesluger , DU: Middeleste Zaagbek, PI: Tukkakoskelo, FR: Harle 

 huppe, GE: Mittelsager , IC: Toppond, IT: Smergo minore, JA: Umi aisa, NW: 

 Siland, PO: Tracz dlugodzioby, PR: Merganso, RU: (Long-nosed Merganser), SP: 

 Mergansar de pecho, Serreta mediana; SW: Sraaskrake] 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 



North America Red-breasted Mergansers breed from the Aleutian Islands, 

 Alaska, and the Yukon east across northern Canada, and south to northern Brit- 

 ish Columbia and Alberta, central Saskatchewan, southeastern Manitoba, northern 

 Minnesota, central Wisconsin and Michigan, southern Ontario and Quebec, north- 

 ern Maine, and the Maritime Provinces. They occur on southern Baffin Island, 

 but not on most other islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago or in the 

 in the northeastern Northwest Territories (AOU 1957, Palmer 1976b). 



These ducks winter mostly on salt water from the southern portions of their 

 breeding range south along the North American coastline to Baja California, Son- 

 ora, central Arizona and New Mexico, and the Gulf coast. Inland, they winter 

 in the Great Lakes States, along the St. Lawrence River, and sparsely elsewhere. 

 They are accidental visitors in the Hawaiian Islands, Bermuda, the Bahamas, 

 Cuba, and Puerto Rico (Palmer 1976b). 



World Distribution The breeding range of the Red-breasted Merganser ex- 

 tends from Greenland, Iceland, parts of the British Isles, Denmark, Norway, 

 Sweden, Finland, and Estonia east across northern Europe and Asia, and south 

 to the Baltic coast of Germany, Poland, central Russia, Lake Baikal, Manchuria, 

 and Kamchatka (Dement ' ev and Gladkov 1952, Delacour 1954, AOU 1957, Cramp et 

 al. 1977). Red-breasted Mergansers winter chiefly along coasts from southern 

 Greenland, Iceland, the British Isles, Scandinavia, the North Sea, the Bay of 

 Biscay, and the Mediterranean and Black sea coasts east to Pakistan, the China 

 coast, Japan, and Kamchatka (Dement' ev and Gladkov 1952, Delacour 1954, Cramp 

 et al. 1977). 



DISTRIBUTION IN THE COASTAL SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 



North Carolina Pearson et al. (1942) considered the Red-breasted Mergan- 

 ser a common winter visitor, arriving mainly in October along the coast and de- 

 parting in April, although some remain until June. They are most common along 

 the coast, especially in the Cape Hatteras region (Map 31), but may be seen 

 throughout the state. North Carolina evidently harbors one of the largest popu- 

 lations of wintering Red-breasted Mergansers in the southeast. A concentration 

 of perhaps 10,000 of these mergansers was seen off Nags Head, 3 February 1972 

 (Teulings 1972b), and Bellrose (1976) reported average winter populations of 

 11,500 in Albemarle and Pamlico sounds. 



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