When it comes to styles of parenting, local birds run the gamut: Sometimes neither parent takes any interest in its chicks (Cowbirds); Sometimes only the female does (hummingbirds); Sometimes only the male does (Spotted Sandpiper); Sometimes both do (Osprey).
The male Common Merganser is a member of the love-’em-and-leave-’em school of avian parenting. After chicks leave the nest in summer, the female stays with them as they grow up while males head off in gangs.
At this time of year, mommy merganser and her chicks (some riding on her back) are a welcome sight.
Meanwhile, the males have gone off on their own. The noisy one in the back looks as if he is already moulting out of his breeding plumage—females are no longer an interest of his.
I would say the one in the back was being beaky………sorry…..