of mallards banded in the southern tier of Canadian Provinces and 
recovered in the various 
flyways as 
indicated 
below: 
Percent 
recovered in- 
_ 
Pacific 
Central 
Mississippi 
Atlantic 
Province of banding 
Flyway 
Flyway 
Flyway 
Flyway 
British Columbia 
98 
0 
2 
0 
Alberta 
25 
63 
11 
1 
Saskatchewan 
5 
33 
59 
3 
Manitoba 
0 
24 
71 
5 
The distribution of recoveries of pintails, shovelers, and 
widgeons indicates a much stronger orientation to western flyways 
than the other species. Thus, 86 percent of recoveries of pintails 
and shovelers banded in Alberta and 80 percent of the widgeon recov¬ 
eries from bandings in the same area were in the Pacific Flyway. 
Approximately 60 percent of immature pintails from Saskatchewan and 
26 percent from as far east as Manitoba were shot in the Pacific 
Flyway. The canvasback is the most oriented toward the Pacific Flyway 
of the divers; 58 percent of canvasback recoveries from Alberta and 10 
percent from Saskatchewan occurred there. However, a large number of 
canvasbacks was killed in the Atlantic Flyway, the proportion from 
most banding regions exceeded that for any other species. Similarly, 
a larger proportion of widgeons was taken in both the Atlantic and 
Pacific Flyways as compared with the blue-winged teal or mallard. 
The transition between a kill pattern oriented primarily toward 
the Pacific Flyway and one oriented to the Central and Mississippi 
Flyways is abrupt for blue-winged teals, scaups, and redheads. All 
blue-winged teals, 91 percent of scaups and 74 percent of redheads 
banded in British Columbia were recovered in the Pacific Flyway, but 
respectively only 5, 9, and 7 percent of those banded in Alberta 
were recovered there. Bandings of these species in Saskatchewan and 
Manitoba rarely produced recoveries in the Pacific Flyway. 
The Canadian waterfowl harvest accounts for a large portion of 
the total recoveries of most species from bandings in Canada and 
Alaska and for a significant but much smaller proportion of recoveries 
from bandings in the United States. The unweighted average of recov¬ 
eries for the various Provinces indicated that approximately 55 
percent of the total harvest of immature mallards produced in Canada 
occurred in Canada. The average proportion of recoveries in Canada 
from bandings in Canada was 43 percent for redheads, 41 percent for 
blue-winged teals, 31 percent for canvasbacks, and between 20 and 30 
percent for other species. The unweighted average proportion of the 
harvest occurring in Canada for all species was 27 percent for bandings 
in Saskatchewan, 34 percent for Alberta, 35 percent for British Columbia, 
and 37 percent for Manitoba. However, these percentages apply to 
9 
