The Harlequin Duck is a small, exquisitely patterned sea duck, and the drake is one of the most beautiful of all waterfowl — slate-blue overall, boldly marked with white crescents, spots, and stripes edged in black, and rich chestnut sides, a harlequin's costume that gives the bird its name. The female is a more modest dark brown with several white spots on the face. Compact and buoyant, Harlequins are birds of rough, turbulent water, at home in crashing surf and fast rivers where few other ducks venture.
Harlequin Ducks breed along swift mountain streams and winter along rocky coasts, and in Michigan they occur as rare winter visitors, favoring rocky Great Lakes shorelines, breakwalls, and turbulent water near piers and structures, where they dive for mollusks and crustaceans among the rocks and waves. A drake Harlequin bobbing in the surf along a Great Lakes breakwall in winter is a spectacular and much-sought sight, drawing birders to the shoreline for a look at this jewel of a duck.
Dives to feed on mollusks, crustaceans, and aquatic insects, foraging among rocks and in turbulent water along shorelines and breakwalls. It is adapted to rough water, prying and picking prey from rocky substrates and swimming strongly against surf and current.
The drake's bold pattern of white crescents, spots, and stripes on a slate-blue body, with chestnut sides, recalls the colorful costume of a harlequin. The scientific name histrionicus also refers to this theatrical, "actor-like" plumage.
In rough, turbulent water — on its breeding grounds along swift mountain streams, and in winter along rocky coasts and shorelines. In Michigan it favors rocky Great Lakes shorelines, breakwalls, and turbulent water near piers.
As a rare winter visitor, mostly on rocky Great Lakes shorelines and breakwalls. A drake Harlequin in the winter surf is a spectacular and much-sought sighting.
Females and first-year males are dark gray-brown with two or three small white face spots and no chestnut or blue at all. Most Harlequins that reach Michigan are these plainer birds.
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