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Off camera, two Herring Gulls, each easily twice a Harlequin's size, were dive bombing, trying to steal their fish. The fish won when the two Harlequins crashed into each other and, in a flurry of wings and water, dropped it.
A very rare Duck from New Zealand, it is sometimes known as a Mountain Duck.
Apologies for the watermark & small upload size, but some of my shots have been stolen.
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Female Australian Shelduck (Tadorna tadornoides), Sir James Mitchell Park, Perth, Western Australia.
Ebird checklist:
ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S35148908
The Australian shelduck mainly breeds in southern Australia and Tasmania and is still fairly common. In the winter, many birds move farther north than the breeding range.
Source: Wikipedia
Male Australian Shelduck (Tadorna tadornoides), Sir James Mitchell Park, Perth, Western Australia.
Ebird checklist:
ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S35148908
The Australian shelduck mainly breeds in southern Australia and Tasmania and is still fairly common. In the winter, many birds move farther north than the breeding range.
Source: Wikipedia
The Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus) is a small sea duck. It takes its name from Arlecchino, Arlequin in French, a colourfully dressed character in Commedia dell'arte. The species name comes from the Latin word "histrio", "actor". In North America it is also known as Lords and ladies. Other names include sea duck, totem pole duck, rock duck, glacier duck, mountain duck, white-eyed diver, squeaker and squeaker.
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El pato arlequín(Histrionicus histrionicus) es una especie de ave anseriforme de la familia Anatidae, la única del género Histrionicus.
Es un pato con un diseño brillante y fragmentado del plumaje que es un sutil camuflaje en las aguas claras y móviles. Cría junto a arroyos y ríos fríos y rápidos, alimentándose de los insectos acuáticos posados sobre rocas y guijarros. Su vuelo es potente y bajo, siguiendo los cursos de agua. Tras la cría emigra al mar, donde bucea en busca de bivalvos y crustáceos.
Clase: Aves
Orden: Anseriformes
Familia: Anatidae
Subfamilia: Merginae
Género: Histrionicus
Especie: H. histrionicus
Nombre Comun: Pato Arlequín
Capture: Barnegat Light, NJ
By HVargas
Adult male. Near Cayucos, San Luis Obispo County, California, USA.
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This is a very old image which has lingered around my archives unpublished for a long time. It is probably the first image I captured of a bird in flight, and all done before high-quality refractive lenses equipped with the miracle of autofocus entered my life.
This drake is one of several flying upstream to plunge into the rushing waters. They fight the current staying as stationary as they could against the force and feeding on the aquatic insect larvae barely beneath the surface. The current would inevitably carry them downstream pass this point and here they would hop on to a rock and rest until it became time to do it all again.
The Harlequin Duck is a small sea duck. It takes its name from Harlequin, a colourfully dressed character in Commedia dell'arte. In North America it is also known as lords and ladies. Other names include painted duck, totem pole duck, rock duck, glacier duck, mountain duck, white-eyed diver, squeaker and blue streak. These ducks feed by swimming under water or diving. They also dabble. They eat molluscs, crustaceans and insects. Harlequins have smooth, densely packed feathers that trap a lot of air within them. This is vital for insulating such small bodies against the chilly waters they ply. It also makes them exceptionally buoyant, making them bounce like corks after dives. Their breeding habitat is cold fast-moving streams in north-western and north-eastern North America, Greenland, Iceland and eastern Russia. Their nest is usually located in a well-concealed location on the ground near a stream. They are usually found near pounding surf and white water. They are short distance migrants and most winter near rocky shorelines on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. They are very rare migrants to western Europe.
Info above was extracted from Wikipedia.