How to Identify a Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)

• Head pattern: Male: large white fan-shaped crest bordered black on a black head, may be raised high or flattened
• Body pattern: Male: white breast and belly with notable black-and-white vertical stripes toward the breast
• Head pattern: Female: paler, bushy grayish-brown crest at the back of a long, flat head
• Bill: Female: narrow, mostly dark bill with a yellow-gray cast
• Flight silhouette: Male and Female: slenderer with faster, choppy wingbeats than Wood Duck, and shows more white on the wings in flight than Wood Duck

Hooded Merganser is slenderer with faster, choppy wingbeats and shows more white on the wings in flight than Wood Duck, and has a narrow serrated merganser bill rather than the Wood Duck's shorter dabbling-duck bill The Wood Duck page lists its own marks.

Wooded lakes, ponds, and rivers; woodland ponds, wooded swamps, and fresh/brackish coastal estuaries in winter Breeds across the eastern US/Canada and Pacific Northwest wooded wetlands; winters across the southern and coastal US

Male raises or flattens the crest as a display

Shoot from water level if you can, with the sun behind you, so head pattern and the wing patch show their true colors. Get one frame with the bird side-on and one as it stretches or flaps, which exposes the speculum and belly. Note who it is swimming with; ducks flock by species. The app names the likely species; confirm with the marks above, and check the female separately, since females of many ducks look alike.