The duck has a hood

By Aaron Horrell

These two ducks are a pair of hooded mergansers. The male sports brilliant white on his head and chest. The female has an elegant copper-colored hood.

The hooded merganser is a very small duck, weighing only about 1 1/2 pounds fully grown.

Its skittish nature, small size and affinity for small ponds with bushy shorelines make it a hard subject to photograph.

I was lucky to capture both male and female in the same photo as they swam across an opening on a pond several yards from me.

The hooded merganser is somewhat common in Southeast Missouri as a winter migrant. This duck dives for small fish and crawdads to eat.