A streamlined diving duck with a long, narrow bill that eats fish. It breeds widely across the north and moves south for winter.
Breeding males have a green head and white body. Females have a rusty crest and gray body; males also look more like females in nonbreeding plumage.
The parts of a river used by goosanders change with the seasons. In Scotland’s Dee watershed, birds were most abundant on the upper main river in spring and summer and on lower stretches from late summer through winter. Loch use increased in late winter and spring. The watershed contained places for rearing young, feeding and overnight roosting.
The 1994 paper summarized observations during 1988, with main-river sections counted weekly and tributaries and lochs at least fortnightly. Young ducklings appeared in nursery areas on lower tributaries and the main river within days of hatching; many grew within a few kilometres of river. Flocks of fledged juveniles appeared downstream later in summer. Adult males were absent from the study area from June to October that year, while females, families and juveniles successively dominated the summer counts.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
A 2009 paper recommended treating Alpine-breeding goosanders as a distinct conservation unit. Ringing records from Switzerland and neighbouring areas documented connections with northern Europe, whose birds join Alpine birds in winter. The author emphasized the conservation responsibility of Switzerland and Bavaria, Germany, which hold much of the Alpine breeding group. Recognizing its conservation importance was identified as relevant to management of conflicts with anglers.