Marie Read / Common mergansers (Mergus merganser) family, female swimming with seventeen ducklings, some of which are riding on her back, Lansing, New York, USA, June.

Marie Read / Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator) male in foreground performing courtship display to female in background (left), Aurora, New York, USA, April.

Sandra Bartocha / Red-breasted mergansers (Mergus serrator) on Tundra Lake Nordkinn-Peninsula, Norway

Marie Read / Common mergansers (Mergus merganser) pair copulating on water, New York, USA, April

LYNN M. STONE / Hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus), male (foreground) and female, swimming on freshwater pond, Sarasota, Florida, USA, February