observed or reported but on which the breeding status is unknown; these streams have been 

 surveyed 0-5 times each (Cassirer et al. 1996). 



Winter range Winters in the Aleutian and Pribilof islands south on the west coast of North 

 America to Oregon, rarely to central California; southern Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, 

 south to Maryland (but mostly north of Cape Cod); accidental in Hawaii and the Great Lakes; 

 much more abundant in the Aleutians than farther south in southwestern Canada and the U.S. 

 Pacific Northwest (Figures 1). 



OUTSIDE THE AMERICAS 



Figure 4. In the Palearctic, the Harlequin Duck breeds in Iceland and Greenland in the Atlantic 

 Ocean, and from the Lena River in Siberia east to Kamchatka and south to northern Mongolia, 

 the Kurile Islands, and nothern Japan in the Pacific Ocean; winters in Eurasia south from the pack 

 ice to the east coast of Korea and central Japan in the Pacific and on the Atlantic in the ice-free 

 zones around Iceland and Greenland (Philips 1925, Salomonsen 1950, Dement'ev and Galdkov 

 1967, Portenko 1981, American Ornithologists Union 1983, Boertmann 1994). 



HISTORICAL CHANGES 



The range of the Harlequin Duck has contracted in the past 100 years at both large and small 

 scales. Historically, Harlequins bred in Colorado, probably as a small isolated population, until at 

 least 1 883 (Parkes and Nelson 1 976), currently, they do not breed in the state. In Oregon, 

 Harlequins historically bred in the Wallowa and probably Blue Mountains of the northeastern part 

 of the state (Gabrielson and Jewett 1940, Latta 1993). They are thought to have historically bred 

 much more widely in the North Atlantic region (Merriam 1883, Peters and Burleigh 1951, Goudie 

 1989, 1993). 



On a smaller scale, heavy white-water rafting is believed to have been the primary factor in the 

 displacement and resulting extirpation of Harlequins on the Methow River in Washington (Brady 

 pers. comm. in Clarkson 1994). In Yoho National Park, Alberta, Harlequins regularly bred in the 

 vicinity of Lake Ohara until 1985; they have not been seen since then (Hunt and Clarkson 1993). 

 This area now has heavy recreational use, building facilities, and a hiking trail circling the lake. 



Within the Rocky Mountains of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, few historic records exist for 

 either known current or extirpated Harlequin occurrences (Table 1 ). The scant existing evidence 

 indicates that Harlequin Ducks were once more widespread than they are currently. In addition to 

 the historic Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming streams listed in Table 1, Harlequins have not been 

 observed during recent surveys of Big Creek, Quartz Creek, and Trout Creek, indicating that they 

 may be extirpated fi^om those streams (Table 2). 



Table 1. U.S.A. Rocky Mountain streams previously used by Harlequin Ducks where no 

 use has been documented since 1988 (Cassirer et al. 1996.) 



