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Goosander, by Robin Sellers

Following recent Notes in BB concerning unusually tame Goosanders Mergus merganser taking bread (Brit. Birds 102: 279, 509-510), we have received a number of items of correspondence on the subject.

Harry Dott confirmed that he had noted a single Goosander mingling with Mallards Anas platyrhynchos, Tufted Ducks Aythya fuligula, Common Coots Fulica atra and Black-headed Gulls Chroicocephalus ridibundus in January 1991 at Blackford Pond, Edinburgh. All the birds were jostling together in a close group, attempting to seize pieces of bread being thrown into the water by three people no more than a metre from the birds. The Goosander behaved in exactly the same way as the other waterbird species. Similar behaviour was noted by two male and three female Goosanders at Figgate Pond, Edinburgh, in March 2006.

Peter Herkenrath reported similar behaviour at Nyon on Lake Geneva (Lac Leman) in Switzerland, where in February 2010 some 20 Goosanders (including c. 15 drakes) mingled with Mute Swans Cygnus olor, Mallards, Common Larus canus and Black-headed Gulls at a feeding station. The Goosanders were very quick in catching the bread that people threw out and, indeed, were often quicker to respond than the other birds.

Peter also found references to the behaviour in the German ornithological literature. Vol. 3 of the Handbuch der Vögel Mitteleuropas (Bauer & Glutz von Blotzheim, 1969) states in the chapter on the Goosander ‘Juveniles that grow up on busy lakes and hungry birds in winter are fed with bread on occasion’ (translation Peter Herkenrath); while Wüst, in his Avifauna Bavariae (Vol. 1, 1982), writes ‘Single Goosanders or families spend time on city lakes and may become so tame that they are fed by people’ (translation Peter Herkenrath).

Finally, Robin Sellers contacted us to report sightings (passed on to him from various sources) of Goosanders eating bread from a second site in Cumbria (i.e. in addition to Bowness-on-Windermere), one in Derbyshire, one in France and one in Switzerland. He also mentioned that one of the two birds that was the subject of his original note (Brit. Birds 102: 279) became so tame that it was caught – by hand – and ringed. A second bird was caught at Bowness-on-Windermere, again by hand, the following winter; this (see photo) evidently did not deter it in its quest for sliced white bread!

References

Bauer, K. M. & Glutz von Blotzheim, U.N. 1969. Handbuch der Vögel Mitteleuropas. Vol. 3. Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, Frankfurt a.M.: p. 479.

Wüst, W. 1982. Avifauna Bavariae. Vol. I. Ornithologische Gesellschaft in Bayern, München: p. 331.

Harry E. M. Dott, 8 Mortonhall Park Gardens, Edinburgh EH17 8SL

Peter Herkenrath, c/o UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 219 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL

Robin M. Sellers, Crag House, Ellerslie Park, Gosforth, Cumbria CA20 1BL

Editorial comment It seems that the Goosander may be an example of a species that can observe a behaviour being used by another species and copy it in an opportunistic way; and certainly this behaviour is more widespread than we were aware. We shall continue to receive other examples of this behaviour with interest, but will not publish further reports unless a new aspect to the behaviour is apparent. Eds