Bird
Red-breasted Merganser
Mergus serrator
A winter visitor to Virginia, found in all 133 counties and cities and 8 habitats.
- Here
- Winter and on migration
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- All 133 counties and cities
- Habitats
- 8

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- Winter and on migration
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- All 133 counties and cities
- Habitats
- 8
- Habitat models
- Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Virginia 8
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.




Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)
Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.
Disturbed and introduced wetlands
Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.
Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.
Other habitats in its models (10)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Virginia.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Winter.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
Seasons in Virginia
- Migratory: does not nest here, in 124 of 133 counties and cities.
- Winter: does not nest here, in 25 of 133 counties and cities.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 140
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Virginia. Shared habitat, not food.
- Common WaxmyrtleMorella cerifera
- Shoreline SedgeCarex hyalinolepis
- Dotted SmartweedPersicaria punctata
- Swamp RosemallowHibiscus moscheutos
- SwitchgrassPanicum virgatum
- Green Arrow-arumPeltandra virginica
- Groundsel-treeBaccharis halimifolia
- Creeping SpikerushEleocharis fallax
- Estuary PipewortEriocaulon parkeri
- Bigleaf Marsh-elderIva frutescens
- Rice CutgrassLeersia oryzoides
- Welsh MudwortLimosella australis
- Marsh SeedboxLudwigia palustris
- Narrowleaf Pond-lilyNuphar sagittifolia
- Royal FernOsmunda spectabilis
- Loblolly PinePinus taeda
- Swamp RoseRosa palustris
- Dwarf ArrowheadSagittaria subulata
- Saltmarsh CordgrassSpartina alterniflora
- Saltmeadow CordgrassSpartina patens
- Bald CypressTaxodium distichum
- Red MapleAcer rubrum
- Sensitive JointvetchAeschynomene virginica
- Hazel AlderAlnus serrulata
Wildlife 242
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Virginia. Not sighting records.
- Prothonotary WarblerProtonotaria citrea
- Purple MartinProgne subis
- Red-shouldered HawkButeo lineatus
- Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed SparrowAmmodramus caudacutus
- Short-billed DowitcherLimnodromus griseus
- Thayer's GullLarus thayeri
- White-throated SparrowZonotrichia albicollis
- Wilson's PloverCharadrius wilsonia
- Acadian FlycatcherEmpidonax virescens
- Alder FlycatcherEmpidonax alnorum
- American RedstartSetophaga ruticilla
- Baltimore OrioleIcterus galbula
- Black TernChlidonias niger
- Black-and-White WarblerMniotilta varia
- Black-capped ChickadeePoecile atricapillus
- Black-throated Green WarblerDendroica virens
- Blue-gray GnatcatcherPolioptila caerulea
- BuffleheadBucephala albeola
- Carolina ChickadeePoecile carolinensis
- Cedar WaxwingBombycilla cedrorum
- Chestnut-sided WarblerDendroica pensylvanica
- Common GoldeneyeBucephala clangula
- Common MerganserMergus merganser
- Dark-eyed JuncoJunco hyemalis
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Red-breasted Merganser Brackish or salt water only
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)










































