It is winter and the Red-Breasted Mergansers have arrived on the Chicago River for this #featheredfriday
There is a spot on the Chicago Riverwalk where the river branches at a 90 degree angle. This is where I usually see the Red-Breasted Mergansers in this area when it is quite cold but the river is still not frozen.
If it wasn't so cold I could watch these guys for hours fishing then trying to steal fish from each other.
The males have a black and purple spiked feather head and their breast is brown during the non-mating season. Later on in spring they get more reddish brown feathers hence their name.
The females are more plain and brown as is usual in the bird world. They still have some spiked feathers though.
This one caught some kind of polluted fish out of the river lol. She gulps it down as fast as possible to avoid others trying to steal the fish from her.
Here is one in the darkness under one of the bridges. You can get fairly close to them right on the riverwalk's edge.
The males have nice bright red eyes. I thought this one had a fish at first but it was just playing with water.
If this was closer to spring this guy's breast would be less brown and more red like a robin.
This one was flapping his wings at another one who just caught a fish. Quite a bit of competition for food here.
The true rulers of this river are the seagulls though. I've seen them steal from the mergansers before and they will also steal whatever food they can get from the humans too. Now that the subzero weather has arrived I suspect the poor mergansers will have to fly a bit more south as I suspect the river might freeze over this weekend.
That's all for now, thanks for looking :-)
