[Length 23 in. Wingspan 30 in.]

Red-breasted Mergansers are duck-like birds with shaggy crests and long, thin bills. The male has a black and white back, gray sides, a reddish breast, a white neck ring, and a dark, greenish head. The female has a dark pearly gray body, and a reddish head which does not contrast sharply with its white breast (the similar female Common Merganser shows a sharp contrast). Red-breasted Mergansers breed across most of Alaska, most of Canada except the southwestern provinces, and the northern portions of the Great Lakes US states. They winter strictly along the southern coast of Alaska, the western and eastern coasts of Canada, the Great Lakes, and the western, eastern, and Gulf coasts of the US. This male Red-breasted Merganser was photographed at the famous 8th Street Jetty in Barnegat, New Jersey, USA. Photo taken with a Nikkor 300mm ED f4.5 lens on Kodachrome 64 film. (Date: March 1981)

[Length 23 in. Wingspan 30 in.]

This female Red-breasted Merganser was photographed at Scarlet Colley's birds and dolphins boat trip, Port Isabel, Texas, USA. Photo taken with a AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED lens on a Nikon D7100 camera. (Date: April 5, 2016)

[Length 23 in. Wingspan 30 in.]

This first year Red-breasted Merganser was photographed at Bear River NWR, Ogden, Utah, USA. Photo taken with a AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED lens on a Nikon D7100 camera. (Date: June 21, 2016)

[Length 23 in. Wingspan 30 in.]

This male Red-breasted Merganser was photographed Brigantine NWR, New Jersey, USA. Photo taken with a Nikkor 300mm ED f4.5 lens on Kodachrome 200 film. (Date: April 1989)

[Length 23 in. Wingspan 30 in.]

This female Red-breasted Merganser was photographed in Coot Bay Pond in Everglades National Park, Florida, USA. Photo taken with a Nikkor 300mm ED f4.5 lens on Kodachrome 64 film. (Date: February 1983)

[Length 23 in. Wingspan 30 in.]

This female Red-breasted Merganser in flight was photographed at Cape May, New Jersey, USA. Photo taken with a Nikkor 300mm ED f4.5 lens on Kodachrome 200 film. (Date: March 1990)

[Length 21 (Female) to 25 (Male) in. Wingspan 34 in.]

The Northern Pintail is one of the most common and widespread ducks in North America. It breeds in the central and western US, all across the northern US, and in virtually all of Alaska and Canada (save Newfoundland and Labrador, and the high arctic reaches such as Baffin and Ellsmere Islands). The males are handsome with their chocolate heads, snow-white breasts and neck stripe, silver-gray bodies, and the long tail plumes which give them their name of "Pintail". This male was photographed at the Lake Hood Seaplane Marina in Anchorage, Alaska, USA. Photo taken with a Nikkor 300mm f4.5 ED lens on Kodachrome 200 film. (Date: June 1989)

[Length 21 (Female) to 25 (Male) in. Wingspan 34 in.]

This female Northern Pintail was photographed in the grass along a small pond in a city park in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Photo taken with a Nikkor 300mm EDAF f4.0 lens on Kodachrome 200 film. (Date: July 1994)