The Common Merganser (Mergus merganser), known in Europe as the Goosander, is a large fish-eating duck with a slender, serrated bill. The male is white with a faint pale-pink tinge and a glossy, dark green-black head that is completely smooth, without any crest, paired with a slender red bill; the female is grey-bodied with a rust-red, slightly crested head and a sharply, cleanly defined white chin that sets it apart from the more gradually blended head-to-neck pattern of the smaller Red-breasted Merganser. It measures 58–68 cm in length, has a wingspan of 82–97 cm and weighs 1.1–2.1 kilograms.
The species is mostly silent; the male's courtship call is only a very faint "kii-korr," and it otherwise rarely makes itself heard. The Common Merganser breeds throughout Sweden, most numerously in the north, with a national population of 25,000–50,000 pairs living at forest lakes, rivers and along the coast; in winter, large flocks gather on ice-free rivers, rapids and southern coasts, making the species conspicuous and easy to see at that time of year. It nests in tree cavities, rock crevices or large nest boxes, sometimes well away from and high above the water, where the female lays 8–12 eggs and incubates alone for 32–35 days; the newly hatched chicks boldly jump down to the ground and are quickly led to the nearest water, and broods sometimes merge so that a single female can be seen escorting a large group of chicks of varying ages. The diet consists mainly of fish — roach, perch and young salmonids — caught by diving, with the slender, serrated bill equipped with horny hooks that help it grip slippery prey.
Read about this species in Swedish →