The red-breasted merganser’s small head, slender neck and tapered body give it a streamlined appearance in the air. The male shows a striking, wide band of white that extends almost the full length of the body and a dark band across its chest. The dark green head appears black at a distance and is tufted at the back, unlike the smooth head of the common merganser. Male red-breasted mergansers have deep red eyes and feet. The back is black, the rump gray-brown with fine black bars. Wavy lines of black bar the white sides and flanks, creating a distinct contrast with the white belly.
Large white patches, similar to those of the common merganser and goldeneye, span the inner wing of the male, separated by two narrow black bars. The white patch formed by the white middle coverts on the shoulder is margined at the wing edge by the dusky feathers of the lesser coverts. One black bar is formed by the black base of the white greater coverts and the other by the black base of the white secondaries.
The female red-breasted merganser has a dusky gray back enlivened occasionally by a small white patch in front of the tail. Except for their smaller size, female red-breasted mergansers greatly resemble common mergansers. They have cinnamon-brown heads and lightly mottled gray backs and sides. The two species can be distinguished by noting that the white throat of the red-breasted merganser merge imperceptibly with the brown head, whereas the common merganser’s throat is more sharply defined against its reddish-brown head. Female red-breasted mergansers also have a slight protrusion of feathers at the back of their head. The female also has lighter red eyes and feet than the male. They have ash-gray shoulders and a small white patch on the speculum formed by the inner white secondaries, with a black base. The primaries and their coverts are dusky brown.
Both males and females have long, narrow bills with serrated edges, which are bright red in the male and duller in the female.
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