Images and video by Michelle Bellizzi
Among the many baby birds now in care at our San Francisco Bay center is this Common Merganser chick. Earlier this month, we featured an adult merganser — a Red-breasted Merganser, to be exact — on this blog, one brought to us via an Arizona rehabilitation center (read this recent story and check out a great release photo here).
As for the chick, center manager Michelle Bellizzi reports that this bird was brought to us via The Bird Rescue Center of Santa Rosa and weighed just 30 grams upon intake — about as much as a pencil.
In the video below, it’s feeding time. This chick has since been transferred to a small pool with some duckling pals.