The Courtship of Hoodie’s Father
So, many of you may not catch how clever this title is (or at least in my mind it’s clever). There was a television show many years ago called The Courtship of Eddie’s Father about a widowed, single dad to a boy named Eddie who occasionally looked for a mate. The birds commonly known as Hooded Mergansers are also called “Hoodies” and the males are almost always on the prowl for a mate which they do in a most showy way.
First, let’s back up a minute about Hooded Mergansers if you’re not familiar with them. A waterfowl duck that migrates to Colorado in November(ish) and leaves in the Spring, it is one of my favorite ducks. They are loaded with personality and make for a wonderful winter photography subject. But I have started experimenting with video lately and I found they are almost the perfect video subject when they do their courtship ritual.
A small flock of about 16-20 of males and females recently showed up at a local pond here. The males generally just float around in peace and harmony until for whatever reason one decides to “show off” to a nearby female. Then they all decide to get in the act and at that point, let the camera roll! Just listen to the perfect description form the Cornell University Birds of the World website: Males have elaborate courtship behaviors which include Crest-raising, Head-shaking, Head-throws with Turn-the-back-of-the-head, Head-pumping, Upward-stretch, Upward-stretch with Wing-flap, and ritualized Drinking. Crest-raising may occur separately or in conjunction with Head-shaking which together are often performed 3–4 times as a precursor to Head-throws. Head-throws, the most elaborate display, are usually performed with the male parallel to the intended female. With crest raised, males bring their head abruptly backward touching their back. A rolling frog-like crraaa-crrrooooo call is given as the head is returned to the upright position and turned away from the intended female. Sometimes after a Head-shake, no Head-throw is given, instead males extend their neck, open their bill and give a hollow pop call. Pumping involves an upward and outward motion of the head, with the bill tracing ellipses in space. Upward-stretch is a head shaking stretch performed with crest raised and appears to have evolved through ritualization of daily comfort movements. This behavior is sometimes accompanied with Wing-flaps. Drinking is a ritualized behavior that can be distinguished from normal drinking motions by the strongly depressed crest and almost vertical orientation of the bill.
Above - Five male Hooded Mergansers get ready to vie for one female Hooded Merganser (click to enlarge)
Phew! By the way, the website also says females can court but only with head bobbing, apparently electing not to make quite the fools of themselves that us males do.
So, check out these very short videos below of the males in full courtship mode as well as the last video showing it in full bathing and preening mode that I had to edit down to about a minute from its almost five full minutes!
The first two videos below are in slow motion so that you can watch the elaborate ritual without missing anything.
The next video below is at normal speed so you can see the speed with which these males perform their rituals
And this last video below shows that male Hooded Mergansers not only court ritualistically but appear to bather and preen just as elaborately.
Too bad Bill Bixby (Eddie’s father) didn’t know about this technique or he might have found that elusive mate he was looking for.