In the Field

Autumn Hooded Merganser. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 26, 2026.

We see a lot of mergansers in the Great Bear Rainforest, but most are Common Mergansers. Seeing and photographing Hooded Mergansers there is more of a rarity, which makes it a bit of a special treat. Interestingly, during my "Autumn in the Great Bear Rainforest" Exploratory Photo Adventure in 2026 we saw a decent number of Hooded Mergansers, especially when we were out in the outer islands (as opposed to the mainland inlets).

I captured this Hooded Merganser flight shot while still testing and fully sussing out the overall performance of a newish model of Sony camera - an A7R VI. When I first saw the key specs of the A7R VI (67 MP sensor, stacked sensor, 30 fps, etc.) I thought it just might make for an awesome wildlife camera (as well as an excellent landscape camera and overall "nature photographers" camera). One question I had was whether or not its AF system would be sufficient to successfully capture the level of action shooting I typically engage in.

Anyway...this particular image was captured with my A7R VI paired with a 600mm f4 lens paired with a 1.4x TC (for a total of 840mm). And I'm very pleased to say that the A7R VI's AF system easily handled this lens/TC combination. In fact, during this photo tour I didn't see any significant difference in AF performance between the Sony A7R VI and the A1 II flagship). Please note that I'm NOT saying that the AF performance would be the same in all conditions and shooting scenarios, just that in the challenges I put the two cameras to during this photo tour there was no obvious difference in AF performance.

What about the overall performance of the A7R VI as a wildlife camera? I have to say my initial thoughts seem to be spot on - I am just LOVING using my A7R VI for wildlife photography. I can even say that if I was forced to choose between an A1 II and an A7R VI for wildlife photography I'd go for the A7R VI. Really!

Here's a larger version (4800 pixel) of this Hooded Merganser in flight:

• Autumn Hooded Merganser: Download 4800 pixel image (JPEG: 4.1 MB)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. These images - in all resolutions - are protected by copyright. I'm fine with personal uses of them (including use as desktop backgrounds or screensavers on your own computer), but unauthorized commercial use of the image is prohibited by law. Thanks in advance for respecting my copyright!

2. Like all photographs on this website, these images were captured following the strict ethical guidelines described in The Wildlife FIRST! Principles of Photographer Conduct. As such, no baiting or any form of attractant was used and, as always, we attempted to minimize our impact on the ongoing behaviour of the subjects. I strongly encourage all wildlife photographers to always put the welfare of their subjects above the value of their photographs.

3. This image was captured during my Autumn in the Great Bear Exploratory Photo Adventure in early Autumn of 2026. Each year I offer photo tours into various locations on the amazing BC coast, including the Great Bear Rainforest and, every other year, into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary (to photograph grizzlies, of course!). Details about these trips can be found on the Photo Tours page of this website.

Behind the Camera

Autumn Hooded Merganser. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 26, 2026.

Compressed RAW (ARW) format; ISO 2000.

Sony A7R VI paired with Sony FE 600mm f4 GM OSS lens with Sony 1.4x TC (840mm). Hand-held from floating Zodiac inflatable boat. OSS on and set to Mode 1. Expand Spot (tracking) AF area mode with subject recognition mode set to Bird.

1/2500s @ f5.6; -1.7 stop compensation from multi-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Autumn Hooded Merganser. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 26, 2026.

Initial noise reduction and capture sharpening on the .arw (raw) file using the DeepPRIME XD3 algorithm of DXO PhotoLab 10.1 Elite (using the appropriate camera/lens module).

Subsequent adjustments to the adjusted linear DNG file (exported from PhotoLab) and conversion to 16-bit TIFF file (and JPEG files for web use) - including all global and selective adjustments - made using Capture One Pro (build 16.8). In the case of this image I made just one global adjustment - a tweak to clarity (mid-tone contrast). Selective local adjustments performed using Capture One Pro's layers and masking tools. In this case numerous small adjustments and minor tweaks were made on 5 separate layers, with the tweaks being associated with "exposure balancing" and contrast adjustments (such as adjustments to brightness, clarity, highlights, shadows, blacks, etc.).

Photoshop modifications included insertion of the watermark and/or text.

Conservation

Autumn Hooded Merganser. Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia. September 26, 2026.

Species Status in Canada*: Secure (2015).

Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) is the smallest of the three mergansers found in North America and it is the only one that is found exclusively in North America. They occupy a broad swath of North America and can be seen year-round in many parts of British Columbia. They are much less commonly seen in the Great Bear Rainforest than are Common Mergansers.

Other mergansers (Common and Red-breasted) feed almost exclusively on fish, but Hooded Mergansers have a more varied diet that includes small fish, aquatic insects, and crustaceans (including crayfish).

The Canadian population of Hooded Mergansers has shown a large and long-term increase and is now more than triple what it was in the early 1970's. The Canadian population is now estimated at 860,000 individuals, which represents almost 80% of the global population.

The Hooded Merganser has a conservation status of "Least Concern" globally (IUCN 2018) and "Secure" in Canada (Wild Species Canada 2015).

*as determined by Wild Species Canada