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A narrative podcast from two bird lovers (and friends) exploring all things bird.
I'm Hannah, and I'm Cleo, and you're listening to Birds on Birds.
Welcome back to Birds on Birds, an Ornithological Odyssey, where you come on a journey with us.
You come on a journey.
You left it hanging for a minute after that, and I was like, come on a journey.
Wow.
Maybe we'll see there.
And where are we going today, Hannah?
Today, we're going to the white water.
Rapids.
Whoa.
Have you been Whitewater rafting?
I haven't.
It seems scary.
I've been multiple times.
It's pretty fun Okay.
We should go.
Okay.
This year.
Okay.
Oh, okay.
Well, whenever it opens back up, it's seasonal.
Yeah, it is.
If it's not till spring, we'll wait till spring.
Yeah.
One time Chris was doing it on the Nile and...
Yep.
You didn't see this listener, but Hannah, like, pretended to blush, which was very funny and cute.
Yeah, so he was on the Nile and the raft flipped over and he thought he was going to die.
I would not do that in the Nile.
I can tell you that right now.
Nile crocodiles, hippopotamus.
Yeah, I don't know what else lives in there.
You could die.
I'm not doing that.
Yeah, the worst thing that's going to get you out here is a stray rock, which can fucking pay up. For sure.
I mean, usually we're in the rip and roar in skies.
So I think we're probably doing a duck.
We are duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck.
Well, also, it's my birthday week when this comes out.
So I wanted to do a duck.
I'm vulture.
Yeah.
Hannah duck.
But we are doing a duck.
Um, and it's the Harlequin Duck specifically.
Love these.
I'm very excited.
This is one of those animals I didn't know existed.
Let's get into it.
You gotta you gotta look them up.
They are another one where you should look them up because...
Yeah, they seem to be like, wow, another duck.
Cool, Hannah.
Chill with the dog.
I think the ducks we've done have been good ducks Yeah, and grebes that are not ducks, but similar.
Yeah.
Water fowl.
Okay.
Nicknames?
Painted duck, which makes sense.
Sea mouse.
Cute.
Because their sound is kind of described as like a mousy squeak. Could see that.
They're also called squeaker. Sometimes.
Totem pole duck.
Okay. Sure about that.
I could kind of see it.
It's a little statuesque and like, if you think about a totem pole being painted.
We haven't described it yet, but we usually use some pretty bold primary colors.
There's some contrast.
I could see.
Yeah.
It's not where I would go.
No, I could see it.
Rock duck.
Okay.
Glacier duck.
Mountain duck.
White eyed diver.
Blue streak.
Lords and ladies.
That's a lot of nicknames for one duck.
I'm pretty sure it's the most nicknames we've ever had.
It's definitely the most nicknames we've ever had.
Yeah.
Is it the most nicknamed bird?
I have no idea.
I guess we'll find out someday.
Yeah, maybe.
We'll have to do a comparing contrast.
But so far, for sure the most nicknames.
Fascinating.
And even the name itself Harlequin, like, duck.
That's kind of nickname me.
I don't know.
Yeah.
So the scientific name is histrionicus histrionicus.
Okay, which I always think is weird when it's like the same thing twice.
Yeah, I, like, funny enough, you just say it once.
Okay, so it's really interesting that you say that because I just looked up.
So on Birds of the World, there's like a little, I don't know, I'd call it like a calling card section at the top where it's got a picture, the name, the genius species.
And then next to it, it says monotypic.
And I was like, I don't know what that means.
So I just looked it up.
But apparently monotypic tax on.
Yeah, means that there are no, there's only one in that taxonomic group.
And so I think when that happens.
That is why.
Okay.
So they were like, this bird is so nice.
We named it twice and you can't, this bird is so nice.
We named it twice.
Monotypic.
Hotson are also monotypic.
And actually, if you just Google Monotypic, the image that comes up is of a Hudson.
Yep.
So that's fascinating.
Okay, that is interesting.
I think there are other bird, it seems like there are other bird species as well that are considered monotypic.
Yeah.
But we've done 2 now.
So this will be the 2nd as far as I know.
I think so.
I'm pretty positive we haven't done any others besides the hotel.
Really cool.
No, very interesting.
And that makes more sense to me.
Um, because I was like, what the heck?
Their family is Anna today, which includes all ducks, geese and water fowls.
So...
Bug it up, baby.
It's a big family.
To be fair, I don't think it includes some water fowl.
I think there's just certain waterfowl that don't fall into ducks or geese.
Okay.
So males and females actually do have slightly different measurements.
Okay.
They, males are approximately 13.5 to 18 inches, 34 to 46 centimeters.
Weight is 17 to 27 ounces, 490 to 760 grams. Is hefty.
Ducks, I feel like, are usually kind of meaty.
Yeah.
Sorry.
I immediately turned them into food and we had just talked about eating duck.
I don't love duck.
She's fine with it even though she loves them.
You can all psychoanalyze her later.
I eat things I love.
Okay.
So wingspan is the same.
That's the only measurements that's the same.
It's 22 to 26 inches, 56 to 66 centimeters.
Females are a little bit shorter.
So their length is 13 to 16 and half inches.
So about the same starting range, but then they are significantly like 18 is how long the boys can be and 16.5 is the max for females.
So a little bit smaller.
Yeah.
And the weight is the same.
16.5 to 23.5 ounces.
So 470 to 670 grams.
Cool.
So nothing crazy, but there is a slight differentiation for male and female.
Merlin estimates them as crow sized or larger than a buffle head, but smaller than a mallard.
So those are 2 different ducks.
Right.
Buffle heads are pretty small.
Mallards.
We know a mallard. And harlequins are slightly smaller.
Interesting.
Okay.
Their lifespan is about 12 to 14 years in the wild, with some records pushing past 20 years.
Wow.
So they have a pretty long, long living duck.
Do most ducks live that long?
I don't think so.
I think they're kind of resilient. Side, but I didn't think they lived that long.
No.
I feel like that's pretty long life, but...
Well, maybe it's...
Maybe we think that's where nothing else is going to be.
Like, what the fuck is gonna come for you in the rapids.
Exactly.
Well, Bald Eagles.
River monsters?
Oh.
Mm.
I was going Jeremy Wade, you were going realistic. That's fair.
Yeah, I guess it's like 5 to 15 years is like average and that's the Google summary, so let's all take that with a giant grain of salt, but I do feel like that's a long time.
No, it seems like the on the upper end of the duck lifespan if we were to make assumptions.
Fascinating.
Yeah, cool.
I mean, it does make sense with some of the facts about them later.
Um, specifically like Cleo said, with the whole Whitewater Rapids things, they have some cool adaptive things that have happened to them.
Okay.
For the description, the plumage, especially, males and females are very different.
It's a classic bird situation.
I feel like this is a classic duck situation for sure.
Yeah, for sure, duck.
Where the, you could probably confuse the female with other ducks. Except for the behaviors.
So males have a slate blue body.
With rich chestnut flanks.
Ooh.
And a chestnut stripe on the crown of their head.
A bold white crescent sits in front of the eye.
A round white spot behind the eye, and a black bordered white collar on their neck, and then kind of like on their chest.
No, they're I mean, they're striking.
The males are some of the, it's another animal that looks AI generated.
I was just telling Hannah, she loves smooth birds.
These look very smooth and they've got like really interesting patterns.
So the white doesn't extend to the Well, okay, this is interesting.
It doesn't look like it actually extends to the front of the chest, but in all their side profile photos.
It like just hits the edge and then seems to disappear right at the front, but at most angles. Kind of more like a collar then.
Like almost like a yeah, like it ends.
Or it like peters out.
Tapers out.
Yeah. Think they're the same thing.
Okay.
I think I haven't said Peters out out loud in a long time. And so it felt wrong.
Sorry, Peter.
You're out You're out.
But yeah, I don't think it goes all the way to the front, but it's hard.
It's kind of hard to tell because most of the photos are from the side, which makes sense because once you see them, you would understand.
Or they're in the water, so you can, you can see the, okay, I found one that has the front.
So what happens is the top ring, the one that separates, um, like when you consider...
If it was a person, it'd be like where your collar is. Right now.
That 1st one almost touches and sometimes touches in the front.
It looks like almost like you're wearing a polo shirt.
Yep.
And then the one on the chest looks like it will do that, but it actually kind of just lines up with the one on the front and there's a big patch missing.
So it doesn't connect all the way.
So the top one does the bottom one does not.
Correct.
Yeah.
Thank you.
That was perfect.
You're welcome.
They have a small gray blue bill.
Yes.
It's a little smaller than like a mallard bill, I would say.
I think it's smaller than most.
Most ducks.
It looks more like a piebill grebe.
Yeah, it kind of does Like a shorter and very thin.
I think a lot of duck bills, they get kind of flat.
They're flat and they kind of end in like a little bit thicker space.
This is like thins out.
Imagine a normal, like whatever bird beak you're picturing, but then like flatten it and extend it a little and that's kind of what it looks like.
Yeah, very pointy.
Yeah, much more pointy, much smaller than the typical mallard.
Then they also have a long pointed tail.
But it really is like one of the most extreme plumages of ducks.
And there's some wild ducks out there.
So this is one of the wildest.
The female have a pretty uniform, dark brown, gray look with 3 soft, whitish patches on the face.
I think trying to kind of imitate the male.
Maybe.
But it's, it's definitely not as distinguished.
It's much more like, oh, there's some white spots on that duck's face.
Yeah, it's not so much a pattern.
Yeah, I would say the white on the male in the front near the bill is definitely just kind of looks like it kind of looks like a dog when they get the old man mask or the old dog mask.
It's not just the man dogs.
It looks like that, like a dapply kind of graying, but then they have that white spot behind the eye that the males do have that does look very distinct.
Yes.
Which I think could separate them, but yeah, that's really the only like pattern they retain between the 2 of them.
Yep.
Agreed.
But they're much grayer than some of the, a lot of the photos.
There are some where they look a little more brown gray, but most of the photos that I saw of the females were more gray than the brown that you would typically see for a female duck.
Yeah, interesting.
But none of that distinct patterning that's so clear and contrasty for the family.
And no, like, reddish colors.
I mean, they're like rufousy, but if you look at the picture, these are like rusty red in like a bright way.
Well, and if you think about like the gray and the white, like that's more camouflagy for their environment, um, whereas...
Oh, you mean the female birds?
I was like, in what way?
Because they look like a group of polo players.
No, the males are not camouflage for breeding implements.
I see what you're saying.
The females.
I can see how they would be using their plumage as like, I feel like female ducks, like a mallard looks kind of like they would blend with the marsh.
I completely agree.
Whitewater rapids.
It's much more what the female would be camouflaging in.
Definitely.
So for sound, as I mentioned at the top with their different many varied nicknames, they are called sea mouse and squeaker because they don't quack.
They are not a quacker.
They have a squeaky, high.
It's very, it's similar to the cedar waxwing, where it can be almost like hard to hear.
We listen to multiple sounds.
And I heard more other birds and like car noises than the bird itself.
Yeah, we had to listen to like 8 different ones.
Yeah, but they, it's kind of, it's described often as mouse like chirps.
So that's why they're nicknamed the sea mouse or the squeaker, but that is their sound, which I will play here.
Okay, so now we're getting into the wild facts of what's going on.
So, breeding range, they love fast flowing white water mountain streams in forested terrain, western populations across Alaska, the Yukon, and western Canada down through the Rockies, but like the coastal Rockies.
So, like, think Pacific Northwest of the US kind of thing, and Canadian Rockies.
But they do have a small eastern population along rivers in Quebec Labrador in Newfoundland, which is on the other side of Canada.
They're non-breeding winter range is rocky wave battered coastlines.
So Pacific Northwest, and Alaskan chores for Aleutian.
I think Aleutian is different than Alaskan, actually.
Yeah, we looked it up and I can't remember what aleutian is.
I think there's Aleutian Islands or something.
Yeah, it's the islands. Right.
So they kind of stick around there for the Western population and then the Atlantic coast.
Maine has a huge population of wintering, Eastern harlequin ducks.
That's fun.
I'm looking at the map for where they are right now and I'm realizing I am so much worse at geography than I think I am.
No, when I 1st was looking at it, I was like, okay, so that's America.
And then I was like, 0 no, that's Russia.
No, literally, I did the exact same thing where I was like, oh, America.
And then I was like, that's not America.
And then I saw America and I was like, ah.
Yeah.
Also, the Yukon is a territory of Canada. Is.
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
But very, very.. Like seems small compared to the rest of Canada.
It is.
Canada is so big.
But it's rugged.
Yeah, it's huge.
That's on American...
I think there's like, I don't know if it's conspiracy, but like our maps growing up, where like apparently the USA is like enlarged intentionally to make it seem bigger.
And I do feel like nobody really, I feel like they made Canada look a lot smaller than it was.
Growing up.
It wasn't until I started watching Alone that I realized that Canada is really fucking big.
Really big.
Continue.
Uh, they also have some groupings on the coast of Greenland.
So they just love a coast. What that is.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, they love there's also some stuff that I found on birds of the world about eggs and they were Icelandic.
So I think they just love love a rocky coastal region.
Really outdoorsy kind of guy.
They're really outdoorsy.
Adventurous, yeah. Like extreme outdoors.
Not just like, I like to go outside and feel the sun on my skin.
No.
They wanna get in it.
They want to get in it.
They want to be.. Graped a prawn survivalist.
Scrap to prawn.
Or scrape that prawn.
Oh, scraped upon.
I thought you said scrape to pawn and I was like, that's kind of poetic.
They scrape that rock to pawn it at the shop.
Oh, I was thinking prawn, like prawns.
Like shrimps?
Like scraped to prawn, like rock to shrimp.
Shrimp.
Rock shrimp.
That's the type of shrimp that they eat?
No.
I don't think they trip at all.
We simply have to.
Oh my god.
So anyway, the point is, they love a rocky time.
That is the point.
Males do leave the breeding streams once their mate starts incubating and they head to the coastal molting non-breeding sites first.
The females and ducklings will follow once they've hatched, like are done.
So they like do the mating and then they're like, peace out.
I'll see you in a little bit.
It's like in finding Nemo when they get to ride the rip current.
Yeah, exactly.
That's what I said to myself. Read your mind.
For mating habits, they are monogamous, and they actually often form the same bonds each breeding season.
So they're monogamous each season seasonally, but they often stay together through multiple seasons.
Correct.
Well, you've got 15 years.
I mean, some divorce is bound to happen.
So, I mean, it seems like pretty long term as far as like pair bonds are concerned.
Like they didn't necessarily say they didn't say mate for life, but they say long-term monogamy, which feels basically like mate for life.
I think that flamingos were a lot like that, though, where they would stay together for like multiple seasons and then suddenly they would just pick a new partner mate.
Well, and there's this note in birds of the world that says duration and maintenance of pair bond, and it says long-term monogamy again, but then it's, and it says pairs often reunite each winter. On their, or each year on their wintering grounds.
And then it says, divorces are documented, but rare.
Oh, okay.
And I tried to like click into the like cited source, but it doesn't give me any more context besides that it was a study done in 1994.
The Euro was born.
And it was ecology of harlequin ducks in northern Idaho.
Okay, interesting.
So basically, they just haven't been able to prove that they wait until the other duck passes to pick a new mate.
Right.
Because there has been sightings.
But mostly they stay together.
We love it.
They're like the Mormons.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay.
But I'm kind of worried about myself because I do love ducks.
And ducks are one of the only birds with penises.
So I had these ones porkscrew?
No.
They are not.
They're actually one of the few ducks with a straight, snub tipped penis.
Oh, knowing that it's snub tipped is not what I...
Well, and then I tried to Google snub tipped, and it kept showing me pictures of noses.
And I was like, this is...
There's some crossover, unfortunately.
There is some crossover.
Yeah.
Yeah.
How long?
Because I know that some ducks penises are like bigger than the length of their body.
Are these normal?
It's pretty short, actually.
Yeah.
The one we talked about before, the ruddy duck is like one of the ones like one of the longer.
Yeah, like up to more than half its...
There one that's more than its whole body length.
I saw it on like a brief documentary recently and I didn't click in more because I know we'll talk about it someday, but today's not it's not the day.
Yeah.
Well, and apparently the genitals like covariate together, they like co-evolves.
So because they have like a pretty small, simple penis, thallus, if you will, the harlequin duck females possess a correspondingly shorter and simpler vagina.
That's probably for the best, because if it was all corkscrewy, they'd probably be hard.
This is not working.
Mating.
Yeah, that seems like it would be bad for business, if you will.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Honestly, that sounds nice.
Compared to a lot of the other things that I know about ducks, that seems like pretty mild.
Yeah, it's pretty tame, but it does and they do indeed have a penis.
And they mate for life, which I don't think is quite common for life.
No, not for that.
So a lot of times they're pretty aggressive.
Go for it.
Not a gentle penis.
No.
No.
So they copulate by, like, doing their little courtship behavior, which is just the male head bobbing and shaking his tail and whistling while, like, kind of moving around the female.
And then, she kind of, like, will head Bob back, and then they pop that penis out of their cloaca, because it, like, lives inside their cloacum unless they're breeding, actively copulating.
Okay.
So the male rushes the female, which is where they kind of like stick their head down and out and like kind of come at them.
And then the female assumes a prone posture and the male mounts and then grasps the top of her head and it doesn't take long at all.
Okay.
And then afterwards, the male does post-copulatory displays including preening and splash bathing.
Great.
Sounds luxurious.
It's so nice.
It's very, very romantic.
Great.
Not really.
She's like, I need a shower.
Let me splash you, baby.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Splash me, really.
But remember, once she starts incubating, he's gone.
No parental care.
He heads off to most while she raises the brood solo.
Okay.
Nests are ground level.
They're tucked into rocks or dense shrubs right along wherever stream or river they're on.
Occasionally, it'll be a cliff ledge or tree cavity if they're in the Pacific Northwest.
It is entirely built by the female.
It's lined with grass and down, so like other bird feathers.
And then they usually have a clutch of 5 to 8.
Very, I would say pale cream eggs.
There's not much markings or anything.
Um, and they are that sub-elliptical to elliptical shape.
So they're similar to chicken egg.
Like perolescent.
Like they're like off-white, but they have like a sheen to them that feel a little perlescent.
Don't think super shiny, but...
But not like matte, like a deeper cream with a perolescent shimmer.
We love that.
That's so fancy.
And there, what's the word?
Sub elliptical to elliptical.
Sub elliptical to elliptical.
Our new favorite term.
So favorite.
They incubate solo for 28 to 29 days.
So basically a full month.
It's a long incubation period.
Yeah, it is.
Their diet is mollusks, crustaceans, and aquatic insect larva.
Pulled off the rocks and out of the current while they're like dive in and swimming.
Okay.
They're the only duck in North America that is built for feeding in this fast moving water.
That's not something that other ducks are built for because they're dabbling.
They're like, dive in and doing all sorts of stuff.
This one, they're they've, other ducks can't do it.
They can't.
So they're like swimming like intensely at all times.
Well, and I think they just like, their bodies are built to have the right buoyancy.
So if they're not swimming.
They're floating in a way that is compatible with the fast boogie board.
Exactly.
They're boogie boarding while they eat.
But like a boogie board without a person on it.
Yeah, they are the boogie board.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
You get it.
Exactly.
Warming stream temperatures.
So think, remember, they are often mountain streams, mountain rivers.
So warming stream temperatures because and earlier snow melt are starting to shift, the insect availability and timing for their breeding and everything.
So it's creating this mismatch between when the ducks are breeding and when their food is abundant.
So that's kind of a struggle right now as far as climate and diet is concerned.
Yeah, that makes sense.
They are considered least concerned for conservation status.
The Western population is considered stable too slightly increasing, whereas the Eastern North American population is a different story.
So they have declined substantially over the last century and have drawn special conservation concern in Canada.
So the main threats are oil spills.
The Exxon Valdez spill killed an estimated 1300 to 2500 birds, not exclusively harlequin ducks, but they were impacted by that.
They've also been impacted by logging and damming of their breeding streams.
So like former habitats are no longer existent, basically, because of damning.
Did you know that happened in 1989?
No.
But that makes sense because I was like, why don't I know more about the Exxon Valdez spill?
It was because it was before I was born.
Okay, same.
But there was a different one that was during our time.
And it was, I think, in the Gulf.
Yes.
Okay.
That was BP.
Oh, okay.
Because I was like, is that right?
But I think that the big oil spill that I was alive for was the BP one.
But yeah, the accent, New Orleans or something.
March 24th, 1989.
Damn.
And it was technically, well, I don't know why I said it like that.
It was in Alaska.
Oh, okay.
Which is confusing.
Because I thought this was the Eastern impacts, but oh, I guess Alaska, Alaska's Prince William, sound is where it happened.
Interesting.
But would they be considered the eastern population, like all of America, because technically the West is the other side of the Atlantic?
Right, maybe.
I think that, yeah, if you were to look at the Atlantic in the middle or the Pacific?
Nope, it's the Pacific.
If you look at the Pacific in the middle, it might be thinking east and west based on the ocean rather than the continental United States.
No, you're right.
So the east east would be like super east.
You know?
Yeah, the most.
But that doesn't mean it couldn't have impacted them.
Yeah. You're right You are right.
The main population you were saying?
Um, no, I was just saying that the conservation efforts focus on protecting the Eastern population.
Oh, which I see you thought was main because we were looking at it as like Eastern US, but really it's probably like Eastern meaning the US population because if you look at it as if you were the Pacific Ocean, to the east is Alaska.
Yeah.
Even though to us, Alaska is very much to the west.
And I need to think more about if I were the Pacific Ocean.
I wish you would become more one with the Pacific Ocean.
Yeah, I wish I would.
Yeah, in Russia, maybe.
Yeah.
I need to work on that.
You've been you've been lacking in your Russian attitude.
I really have. And I need you to pull it together.
Okay.
I'll eat some sauerkraut.
I don't even know if that's Russian.
I don't know either.
But yeah, you can, basically, the conservation efforts are to try and rehabilitate habitats, continue to monitor populations, and restrict hunting, which, to be fair, they are, I think, semi-popular for hunting where it's legal because they're very beautiful.
So people would want to like mount them and stuff.
I could see why they're trophy birds, but I don't love that.
No, we don't.
We don't like it.
Yeah.
So the name Harlequin comes straight from the, like, literal, we talked about this with the Larksparrow, but the, like, comedia del Arts Harlequin, which is the original, like, court jester, basically.
And the scientific name Histrio is literally Latin for actor.
Interesting.
Yeah.
So Harlequin, like a jester and then actor.
Right.
So because they look like they're in stage makeup.
Oh, I like it.
Very cool.
Latin roots.
Am I right?
Yes.
So, one of the things that is the most interesting, as we've mentioned, the Whitewater rapid situation, but this duck lives most of its life getting thrown against rocks, literally.
So, between the Whitewater breeding streams and the storm battered coastlines, broken bones are so common that researchers have actually noted that they can find recovered fractures in many harlequins, like life history.
So like when they recover birds who've already passed away.
Yeah, and they x-ray them with their x-rays. X-ray them.
They literally are healing themselves.
So, so, like, basically, like, the fractures are happening, but you can tell because it heals wrong.
Right.
It's like if you were to break your toe and you tape them together.
And then suddenly your ring toe leads more towards your pinky toe because you had them taped together.
Exactly.
Yeah, and they're not getting casts.
So scientists have examined x-rays and museum specimens of the adult ducks and reveal that most live with multiple healed fractures in their bones.
That's crazy So, again, it's the environment that they're living in, but they commonly break their ribs.
Wing bones, and small foot bones more often than any other bird.
Wow.
Bones show scans with old brakes that are literally knitted back together with no previous captivity in their future, in their past, not their future.
That's so interesting.
Yeah.
Do you think that they're kind of like, okay.
Stick with me here for a minute.
If you had these in captivity.
Yeah.
You know how there's like certain plants that they're used to living in like rainforest with a lot of wind, so people go out and shake them and like pretend to be a rainforest and they'll literally grab them and like whip them back and forth.
Do you think if you own a harlequin duck, you have to have like a, like one of those pools, like water parks have the wave pool to make them happy?
Probably.
You'd hope.
I feel like their body is adapted to that environment.
So it would be weird for them just have calm water all the time.
Yeah, if you have a harlequin duck, can you make sure that you build them a wave pool?
If you have a Harlequin duck, can you please talk to us?
Yeah, could you be curious?
And also I have other questions for you.
But I don't want to ask them here because they're private.
Oh my gosh.
But also, their feathers are so densely packed with trapped air that after they dive, they pop back up to the surface like a cork.
Oh, they don't have to like swim back up, they just pop back up.
That's probably hard to swim down.
Like, have you ever had like a shirt full of air and then you try to dive down?
It's like that, but way worse, non- porous.
Cool.
It's very interesting.
But it makes sense too because they're kind of hefty.
So, yeah, maybe that helps them go down, but then I mean, still, though, you'd still have to like push yourself down if you weren't, because it's not like they're going to retrap the water.
Yeah. Below.
So they've got to be pretty strong.
And aerodynamic water, water, whatever the water version of aerodynamic is.
Aqua dynamic.
That's not right.
Sleek.
Yeah, they're sleek. Scientifically speaking That's what it's called.
I hope someone one day calls me scientifically speaking.
Ooh, goals.
Body goals.
Duck shape.
Um, but that is my fascinating facts about the Harlequin duck.
I love them.
I love them so much.
I think they're so beautiful and cool and special and if I see one in real life, I might tear up a little bit.
They're very beautiful.
They're really cool.
And also to see them like Whitewater rafting would be really cool.
Really cool.
But I don't want to hear one break a bone.
No.
I don't want be sad.
I want to hear them squeak and do fun stuff.
A little whistle squeak.
Yeah.
I love that.
I thought that was so fun.
Yeah, they're cool.
They are really cool.
I'm gonna have to look into it more too, but a duck that mates for life feels good.
Yeah.
I feel like that's rare.
I do think it's rare.
Um, for ducks, specifically.
For ducks, specifically.
I think it's like medium for birds.
Yeah.
I have ideas about, um, like, who I think this could be, but I know you do too.
Yeah.
Because there's a little spoiler about why this duck came up because Hannah was originally going to do a different duck.
And then we watched something, which I'll let her explain.
But 1st I want to offer a bad, a bad choice.
But it's all I can think about since we talked about their mating situation and it was flow rider.
And it's because of that song Whistle.
Can you blow my whistle, baby?
Whistle, right?
So just picture them singing that song while they're like bobbing around and swimming.
No, no, trying to like woo the girl.
Okay.
And also flow rider because they be riding the flow.
They do.
So it's not a good one, but I have not been able to let it go and therefore I needed to tell you.
No, somebody needs to know.
But yours is better. For other reasons.
And it's so different than mine.
Could not be more on the opposite end pop culturally in almost every single way.
Yeah, but I'll let you explain that.
Well, and also I forgot to mention that the grouping of harlequin ducks is specific because of their name being harlequin.
So they are called a buffoonery.
Oh, or a clowning.
I love that.
Because they're clowns.
To all my girls, my alt girls who are obsessed with clowns in Clowncore right now, a harlequin duck is your entry level to birding.
Yeah.
This is your beginner bird birder.
There we go.
Listen here, circus top motherfuckers.
I am one of you.
I love you.
Go look this bird up. Become a birder.
Come with us.
Join us.
Okay.
But yeah, that is not my direction.
I didn't go with clowning.
Could have, though.
I just really don't know that I'm allowed to look like this.
What if you were like John Wayne.
Oh my god.
Sorry, that's not the choice.
They're not.
They're not.
They're actually some of the nicer ducks.
Yeah, they're very nice.
Sorry.
Hannah's up by that.
Can you tell them what you were thinking of and why this duck came up?
Okay.
So, um, my husband has never seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies and we are going to New Zealand.
So, yeah, our friends were like, you must watch this before you go.
And by you must watch this.
They made him watch all 3 of the extended cuts in one day, which if he's done that. Personally 12 hours.
If not a little more.
So, but there was a baked potato bar.
I only showed up for the last movie because I've done that before already and I'm smart.
Yeah you are.
But in that time, there is a character, who is very beautiful, iconic character.
Her name is Arwin.
Or Liv Tyler.
That's it.
We know her.
We love her.
Late 90s, early 2000s. Legend.
Yeah.
She's so fucking beautiful.
And in this movie, especially Fellowship of the Ring, but all 3 of the movies.
She is always just like ethereal, like almost not real, which is very harlequin duck code coded.
Um, specifically the males.
So we're going to pretend that the males are actually women in this situation. Fine.
But sometimes they are.
And sometimes they are.
Take that, conservatives.
Take it.
But Arwin's defining moment in the 1st movie, Fellowship of the Ring, is when she is trying to save Frodo from the ring rates, or as they're also called, the Nazgul, the creepy people who like have turned into ghosts because they wore the ring for too long or whatever.
Is this the 1st movie?
Sorry.
They're running away from them, but Frodo's been stabbed.
And so she's trying to get him to get some elf magic healing and they're moving fast.
She's riding her horsey, and then they get to a river, and the Nazgoo don't like water.
So she crosses the river, but then she uses her elf magic to create this huge rapids like built from like magic horse water and it just comes crashing into them, but it's just like a harlequin duck because they are built for turbulent water.
They can dive through it.
They can breed in it.
They love it.
Yeah.
And that's what she is.
And I also think she's always wearing a very, like, soft, like, I mean, physically soft, like, velvety, blue cape, and it contrasts with her black hair and her very pale skin.
And it's just giving harlequin duck.
I think it was the 3rd one we were watching where there's like some scenes and she's wearing like the cape like with the hood up.
Yeah.
And it's just like that is the human version of a harlequin duck.
Yeah, that's who she is.
I agree.
I think you're 100% right.
The Flo Rida one just was stuck in my head. Hilarious. Get it out.
So really it's, again, we've come to a crossroads.
Vote for your favorite.
Flo Rider or Arwin.
A or B. Yeah, I have to pick one.
You have to pick one.
Follow us on Instagram to vote because we gotta start doing that.
We got to start having 2 and start actually doing the polls.
If we didn't already do that.
We'll start that this week because I am curious now what people will think.
Like just putting one picture above, one picture below in the duck in the middle, or the bird in the middle, and then having people vote A or B. I need to know.
What would you choose?
And then we can do a results episode.
Okay.
And tell people what the results are.
Wow. From each one that we put out in the last like 5 or whatever.
Could be fun.
Could be fun.
You could participate too.
Follow us on Instagram at Birds on Birds with a 0 instead of a no.
So stop doom scrolling and start clowning around.
Stop doing scrolling and go whitewater rafting.
Yeah.
If you feel comfortable with that.
But not in denial.
Don't do that.
That seems like doctor says don't do that.
So with that.
Stay cool, bird boy.