Food Habits

Feeding
Main Foods Taken Primarily aquatic insects, fish, and crustaceans (particularly crayfish). Microhabitat For Foraging Clear aquatic habitats: forested ponds, rivers, streams, and flooded forest. Although no specific information available, shallow water littoral zones < 1.5 m seem most important (LHF). Food Capture And Consumption Forage in bouts consisting of multiple dives separated by short pauses on the surface. No information on dive depth or duration. Although early accounts suggest wings used for diving, direct observations of foraging birds indicate only feet used for propulsion (Brooks 1945). Most certainly a visual forager. Unlike Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), Wood Ducks, and Redheads (Aythya americana), Hooded Mergansers and Common Goldeneyes can dramatically alter the refractive properties of their eye through accomodative lens changes (Sivak et al. 1985). Although not tested on live foraging birds, such a capability, along with relatively high nictans transparency (Sivak and Glover 1986), probably creates superior underwater vision. Slender bill with serrated edge used for grasping and handling mobile prey.

Diet
Some descriptive information available (Appendix 1). Most quantitative studies have expressed diet as percent occurrence (i.e., number of samples in which food occurred divided by total number of samples; Stewart 1962), or as percentages of total number of individual items in diet of all individuals combined (Cottam and Uhler 1937, Rawls 1954). In addition, prior to the 1970s, food habits research relied on undifferentiated stomach or gizzard samples, a methodology known to bias results against soft-bodied invertebrate foods in waterfowl (Swanson and Bartonek 1970). Thus, the following information may be biased against some foods, does not correspond to particular nutritional or life history stages, and does not accurately reflect quantities of food items in the diet. Diet of 138 birds sampled nationwide from Nov to Mar, expressed as the percent of total number of items in all samples, found fish 44% (spp. unknown), crayfish 22% (Cambarus spp.), aquatic insects 13%, other crustaceans 10%, amphibians 6% (mostly Rana spp.), vegetation 4%, and molluscs < 1% (Cottam and Uhler 1937). Using similar methodology, the diet of 11 birds at Reelfoot Lake, TN contained 81% fish, 13% crustaceans, and 5% clams (Rawls 1954). In Michigan, percent occurrence of foods from 10 birds was crayfish 50%, fishes 50%, insects 20%, frogs 10% (n = 10; Salyer and Lagler 1940). Percent occurrence in stomach samples of 10 birds from Chesapeake Bay in winter was fish 100%,

crayfish 30%, dragonfly nymphs 20% (Odonata), mud crab 10% (Xanthidae), and caddisfly larvae 10% (Trichoptera; Stewart 1962). Mammals not recorded in diet, although a captive bird killed a meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) by repeatedly biting the skull, but it was unable to swallow the 83 mm vole (White 1975). Vegetation reported in the diet; most authors consider its presence incidental, although Salyer and Lagler (1940) suggested the thick-walled gizzard of Hooded Mergansers (presumably thicker than other mergansers) was evidence of an omnivorous diet. More likely a strong gizzard helps grind the hard exoskeleton of crustacean (e.g., crayfish) prey.

Food Selection And Storage

No information available.

Nutrition And Energetics

No information about age, sex, or season related to variation in diet, or nutritional and energetic requirements of young and adult.

Metabolism And Temperature Regulation

No information available.

Drinking, Pellet-Casting, And Defecation

No information on defecation in water. Females commonly defecate when disturbed on nest during incubation.