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Systematics
Geographic Variation
No geographic variation in size or color.
Subspecies
No recognized subspecies. Genetic analysis suggests eastern and western breeding ranges split ca. 57,000 years ago (range 10,000 – 357,000) and have been disjunct for 16,000; but DNA haplotypes do not sort geographically; authors suggest juvenile dispersal and adult (male-mediated) emigration maintain gene flow between breeding populations (Pearce et al. 2008).
Related Species; Hybrids
All mergansers are grouped with closely related goldeneyes and less closely related scoters (Melanitta spp.), eiders, Oldsquaw (Clangula hyemalis), and Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus) into the “sea duck” tribe: Mergini. First classified as Mergus cucullatus, later proposed as a separate genus Lophodytes (Am. Ornithol. Union 1983). Scientific name means “hooded diver.” Morphological (Johnsgard 1961a, Livezey 1986), skeletal (Woolfenden 1961), and courtship and copulatory behavior (Johnsgard 1961b, c) indicate Hooded Mergansers are intermediate between Bucephala and Mergus . Two confirmed (Ball 1934) and 2 possible (Sibley 1993, Millard 1994) Hooded Merganser x Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) hybrid, 1 Hooded Merganser x Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator) hybrid (Erickson 1951), and 1 unconfirmed Hooded Merganser x Bufflehead (B. albeola) hybrid (Marcisz 1981) support this relationship. However, some researchers suggest the differences do not warrant distinction of the genus Lophodytes and support lumping Hooded Mergansers into the monophyletic genus Mergus (e.g., Delacour and Mayr 1945, Johnsgard 1978).
Dugger, B. D., K. M. Dugger and L. H. Fredrickson. 2009. Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/098
