Sea Ducks: Tribe Mergini

During our winter months, I often document sea-diving ducks. Red-breasted mergansers seem to prefer the salty safe havens of East & West Harbors as well as Silver Eel Cove. Nicknamed “saw-bills”, they use serrated bills to tightly grip their fish catch.

Tribe Mergini, or sea ducks, are a diverse assemblage of essentially marine-dwelling diving birds. Merginae, form a subfamily of the waterfowl family of birds, Anatidae.

From the Field, Field Note, Justine Kibbe, Jan. 29, 2019