Hooded Merganser Couple

Here we have a female (left) and male (right). Here's how to distinguish between the two, the female's head has a brown raised crest (or I like to call the slicked back mohawk) and the male's head has a black and white unraised crest. Before males reach their breeding stage, their feathers are more similar to the female. So another way you can distinguish between the two when you have an eclipse male is to look at the eye colour. The females will always have brown eyes and the males will have yellow eyes.