Many things which have webbed feet and flat beaks and short necks and float in the water and go “quack” are, evidently, not technically actually ducks. According to ornithologists, anyway. What a crock. Mergus merganser americanus apparently is, although never mind that its name in Latin implies that it ought to be a goose. (“Anser.”) There’s just no pleasing some people.

No need to be coy with the location of this one; I took this in the wilds of West Virgina, on a trip that’s already over so you guys didn’t know I was out of town in order to all go bum rush my online store or post nonsense in my moderated communities, or something.

This is a female. Like many ducks, mergansers are highly dimorphic and the males look like a mallard from the Mirror Universe. I didn’t spot any of those. This female was paddling all on her lonesome in a river and quite some distance away. The headline image is a crop, and about as far as my lens can comfortably reach. The original is below: