Description: The Goosander is a large duck with a long neck and a thin and fairly long beak. Its weight fluctuates between 1.1 and 2 kg. As all mergansers, the Goosander is a deft paddler, sinking its body deep when paddling; and it is an excellent diver reaching down to 2-4 m. The male species have their head and the upper part of the neck black with a metallic sheen, with the remaining part of the neck, sides and the lower part of the body being white. The females have ginger heads with a broad double tuft. The throat and the crop are white.
Habitat: It is a migratory bird that settles in freshwater bodies with forested banks when nesting: those could be smaller and bare lakes with open reaches, water-collecting areas, and upper streams of rapid rivers. There it would mainly stay close to shores in the shade of trees.
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