mostly fish. Eats a wide variety of fish; also will eat mussels, shrimp, salamanders, rarely plant material. Adult males may swallow fish more than 1 foot long. Young ducklings eat mostly aquatic insects.

Do hooded mergansers eat fish?

Diet. fish and other aquatic life. Feeds mainly on small fish, crayfish and other crustaceans, and aquatic insects; also some tadpoles, a few mollusks, small amounts of plant material. Young ducklings eat mostly insects at first.

How big of a fish can a merganser eat?

Fish up to 36 cm long commonly consumed; also reports of mergansers eating eels up to 55 cm long (White 1957.