My wife makes fun of me because I have about as many categories of favorite birds as there are birds. Hooded mergansers are one of my favorite medium-sized diving ducks. Males are boldly colored with chestnut, black, and white while the females are a soft brown with golden highlights on their crest. Both have a thin bill and a huge crest which opens like a Japanese Fan. Hoodies are notoriously shy and close approach is extremely rare. All our images from this morning were taken a good distance. At one point, however, four hoodies flew much closer, but after seeing us they swam quickly away.