Hooded merganser

Are they a rare bird?

No, not at all, maybe rare for some to shoot though, we normally let them pass. Not very good tablefare.

They make a pretty mount.

Beautiful birds. Only ones I've ever shot were with a camera.

Daddy:



Momma:

I shot one today (didn't know exactly what it was when I
Shot it) and had to google it

They make pretty cool mounts from what I've seen online.

I've never seen one before and I've seen alot of birds in the wild, I did not know if they were common, semi common or rare

Depends on your area like anything else. I've only seen 4 in all my years of hunting. Talk to guys in east tx that view them as bad as coots. I think merganser table mounts look great, mount that sucker!

He is in my freezer now.

I guess like you said it's regional. Mallards are by no means a rare bird but if one gets shot down here it makes the local news, same with wood ducks

LOL, good point... I think I've shot 4 Mallards in my life. They are very rare where I hunt.

Populations approx 300,000 mcgreasers vs 10.5 million mallards. They are fairly uncommon and not easy to target. One of my favorites in hand but a pain to mount!!!

They're really tasty, don't even need to season. Just throw straight on the grill! J/k, they do make pretty mounts though

We get them pretty commonly in our area, mainly in pairs - does anyone know why they have their own bag limit separate than ducks??

creeks, rivers, bottomland and youll find them.

We have none of those here


If the population is 300k in North America then I would say that is pretty low. Apparently Canada has the biggest breeding population

One of my customers harvested a beautiful dear today

We roost a good many of them on the Navasot and the Trinity. Usually if you have a good heavy number of wooduck you will have Hoodys

I think they nest in the same habitat

I shot one and had it mounted. I pass on them tho, no plans to shoot another.

Two hooded is the limit this year on mergansers.

Don't eat them so don't shoot them

But those two hooded don't count against your 6 duck limit?

I moved east to Charleston SC and have shot 4 this year. They are freakin everywhere. I was excited about it but was pretty much laughed at when I showed it to my buddy at the boat ramp.

first one I shot was cool...now I'm just not really sure what to do with them. they aren't tasty to say the least.

good news is they don't count toward your limit.

The hooded mergansers are thicker than the mallards where I hunt.

Beautiful birds if you get the right drake to work.. Shot a mounter a few weeks ago.

Can do both...

Man I want one of these baddddd. I see hundreds of mallards every year. Dime a dozen up here.

Guess I will have to go on a guided hunt to get one sometime.

Take me to a mallard spot and I'll get you a hooded.

We could probably work something out next year for sure.