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Friday, March 13, 2015

Harlequin Duck

While at Clover Point I noticed some Harlequin Ducks. A male of the species is pictured above. These sea ducks dabble for their food in shallow waters but also dive for deeper prey such as crustaceans and worms. They often overwinter here but disappear in the summer. However, unlike most other migratory birds they do not fly north but breed and nest in the mountains, flying eastwards to their favored nesting grounds. This behavior is highly unusual - there's an interesting article about these ducks HERE.

3 comments:

William Kendall said...

Quite a flashy looking fellow!

JoJo said...

They have really cool markings.

Stephanie said...

They are very pretty!