Harlequin Ducks
A Species of Special Concern
The Harlequin duck (Histrionicus histrionicus) is named for the clown of medieval Europe whose appearance it invokes. The male of the species has a striking dark blue head and neck with a large, white tear-shaped marking covering the face in front of the bill.
There is a white band around the collar, and one along the breastbone area. Its chest is a lovely gray blue color. The russet colored body is also accented with bright white markings. There is also a white marking on the lower right side of its head in the shape of a dot, as well as a long white marking in the shape of a dash below it, and each wing has a long, white stripe.
The female is generally brown in color, and can easily be mistaken for a female Bufflehead, or Longtail duck, due to the white markings on its head. Harlequins have also been called “seamice” because of their squeaky calls.
Their Feeding Habits
Harlequins are very small sea ducks found along the coastal regions of the northern United States, Canada, Russia, and Greenland. They prefer to feed in choppy waters, so they tend to forage along coastal areas that are not frozen. The ducks feed by diving into the churning surf in order to find small crabs, mussels, and the like.
It is necessary for the Harlequins to eat frequently in order to keep warm, as they do not have a lot of fat reserves, and they live and breed in very cold climates. Their survival as a species depends on the availability of food. Access to a suitable nesting area is another crucial factor in ensuring its propagation, as they do not breed in saltwater regions.
Their Breeding Habits
Harlequins will fly to freshwater regions to breed. Their nests are built close to fast moving streams. This is necessary because the ducks will dive against the current to the river bottoms in order to feed on the protein rich insect larvae that are found there. The nests are carefully hidden from predators, and the female Harlequin is likely to stay on it, until the ducklings are hatched.
The male Harlequin will fly off, shortly after the eggs are laid, to yet another site until his feathers have molted. The female will also fly off to a separate molting site not long after her brood has hatched. Harlequin ducklings learn to feed themselves about 24 hours after hatching, and can fly when they are only a few weeks old.
Breeding maturity takes as long as 3 years for both sexes, and Harlequins do not necessarily breed each year. This is thought to be due to the availability of food. They also lay rather small clutches of between 4-8 eggs. The clutch of a Mallard duck, for example, could be as large as 13 eggs.
Conservation and Recovery Efforts
The Harlequin duck came under careful scrutiny by scientists in Eastern North America, as their apparent decline in numbers had been a cause of great concern. Very little was known of this species and its mating habits. Population estimates seemed to indicate a problem: so much so that the Harlequin had been placed on Canada’s endangered species list in 1990. It has since been downgraded to “species of special concern”, thanks to the close tracking and monitoring of this wild bird. The work of the COEWIC, or the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, had led to the discovery of a substantial Harlequin duck population in Greenland.
The Harlequin duck species will, in all likelihood, continue to be monitored as their breeding and molting habitat shrinks due to the building of dams, roads, and mining developments. Hunting of the duck is forbidden everywhere in North America, largely because of its habit of feeding so close to shallow shorelines. There are claims that the protection of a species does lead to its recovery, as in the case of the greater Snow goose or the Wood duck. This may be why the Harlequin duck has been found in greater numbers, since the imposition of hunting bans started as early as 1990.
Harlequin Duck, male
|
Harlequin Duck, female
|
What do you think about this article?
Latest Articles