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Harlequin Duck Behaviour Feeding, Hunting & Foraging Behaviour of Harlequin Ducks While on the coast Harlequin Ducks eat marine invertebrates found on rocky shores and gravel beaches during shallow dives. The bill is used to snatch up marine snails and limpets, fish and their eggs, crabs, mussels, chitons, shrimp, amphipods, echinoderms, and barnacles. Twenty-five species of snails and chitons have been identified in their diet in southern British Columbia. Crabs include Cancer crabs, Hemigrapsus shorecrabs and Pagurus Hermit crabs. Especially large flocks gather at beaches when herring spawn to eat the eggs. On fast mountain streams where they nest, Harlequins eat larval freshwater insects such as caddisflies and stoneflies that inhabit the stream bed, and small fish.
Flight Patterns of Harlequin Ducks Harlequins fly with rapid wing low over the water on direct flights. The head and body are tilted slightly above horizontal.
Aggressive, Defensive & Territorial Displays of Harlequin Ducks Males aggressively evict other males from the territory to prevent them from attempting to mate with the territorial female. On the seacoast, males chase other Harlequins from their mates but they do not defend a territory.
Courtship & Breeding Behaviour of Harlequin Ducks Many Harlequin Ducks breed with the same mate each year even though they leave the breeding grounds weeks apart. Males and females often return to the same stretch of beach that they frequented before the nesting season and it is there that they reunite. As a consequence of the long-term bond, courtship is brief and not often seen. Male Harlequin Ducks that fail to locate their mates will court other females. Courting males display using quick upward flips of the bill and head and slow approaches with the neck, head and bill held horizontal on the water surface. The pair migrates to the breeding habitat along mountain streams in May and June to establish a nesting territory where they mate and build a nest.
Harlequin Duck Nesting Habits Harlequin Ducks nest along fast flowing mountain streams in the western mountains of North America and in Newfoundland and the Canadian Maritime Provinces. There are an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Harlequin Ducks in western North America and about 1000 in the east. Pacific Coast Harlequins nest in Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington. They spend the winter between the Aleutian Islands and California. Females may begin to nest as early as three years of age but most are not proficient until five years old. Harlequins produce 1 brood per year. Nest are hidden along the stream bank in depression made of mosses and twigs lined with down. The hen lays between 5 and 7 eggs which she incubates for about 27 to 30 days. The males depart for the coast once the females begin to incubate the eggs in June or early July. The eggs hatch into downy precocious ducklings that quickly take to the water with their mother. She leads them to quiet safe places where they find food on the water surface. The young dive for food when they are older. The ducklings begin to fly when they are about 5 or 6 weeks of age and join the mothers on the first journey to the coast in late summer. There they will meet with the adult males for the first time. Adult Harlequin ducks undergo a feather moult in July and August when they are nearly or entirely flightless. Hundreds of Harlequin Ducks can be found on some quiet coastal rocky islets, and quiet beaches while undergoing the moult. By September, the flight feathers are renewed and the adults sport the bright breeding plumage that they will carry until the following summer.
Harlequin Duck Vocalizations Harlequin ducks are generally quiet birds and utter a nasal quack when disturbed.
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