Harlequin Duck Histrionicus histrionicus Last updated: 1999

• Main Authors: Written Jeffrey, C. Lewis, Don Kraege
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: RATIONALE; San Juan; Greenland; Pacific; Blue Mountains; Iceland; North Atlantic; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.214.5950; http://www.wdfw.wa.gov/hab/phs/vol4/harlequin_duck.pdf

Harlequin ducks winter along the Pacific Coast from the Aleutian Islands to northern California and along the Atlantic Coast. Their breeding and summer range extends from the coastal mountains of Alaska to California, along the northern Rocky Mountains to northwestern Wyoming, and along the north Atlantic Coast, southern Greenland, and Iceland (Bellrose 1980). In Washington, harlequins historically breed in the Olympic Mountains, the Cascades, and the Blue and Selkirk Mountains (see Figure 1; Jewett et al. 1953, Schirato 1994); however, their presence in the Blue Mountains is now in question (Schirato 1994). Wintering areas include northern Puget Sound, northern Hood Canal, the Strait of Juan de Figure 1. Range of the harlequin duck, Histrionicus histrionicus, in Washington. Map derived from the literature. Fuca, San Juan Islands, and the outer coast. Significant numbers of harlequins that breed in Washington molt and winter in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia (I. Goudie, personal communication). Also, some harlequins that