Harlequin duck

[ HISTRIONICUS HISTRIONICUS ]

Every year, California’s rarest duck emerges

from the heart of some remote mountain

wilderness to winter along rocky ocean shores. Although only a few nests were found in the 20th century and the duck’s future looked bleak, the annual arrival of adults on the coast kept alive

hope that the species was still nesting in an unknown corner of a range such as the

Sierra Nevada. Then in 2002 a female with

four young was spotted paddling among the

tourists along the Merced River in Yosemite

Valley -- a sign that these magnificent ducks might make a long-anticipated comeback. Superb swimmers, harlequin ducks bob year-round in turbulent surf and rapids, where they dive for aquatic insects and clams, displaying an uncanny ability to reappear in the same spot from which they disappeared. Harlequin ducks are named after the traditional comic characters who dressed in costumes of multicolored patches.

NATURAL HISTORY

Because their primary vocalization is an unduck-like squeak that, unlike complex calls, can be heard above crashing water, harlequin ducks came to be called “sea mice.”

KEY CHARACTERISTICS

Although strikingly patterned, the drake is surprisingly inconspicuous among

kelp-covered rocks.