Threat display

Red-breasted merganser are migrating through our area.
I have been watching their mating behaviour.


As far as I can tell this display is to impress the females and drive off the other males.
Belly low in the water, tail high mouth gaping open. They were too far off to hear any sound.
The one on the right seems to be impressed by the other male's display.

The bird in the foreground is a horned grebe.

Mergus serrator

The Red-breasted Merganser breeds farther north and winters farther south than the other American mergansers.
source- Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

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