Red Band: Alberta

 You’re a Harlequin duck!

You were banded in Banff National Park in the early spring, by park biologists.

You are a type of sea duck, so your family spends most of the year swimming in the Pacific Ocean between Alaska and California. But your parents came to Alberta to breed and this is where your mom made her nest. Your mom laid you and four other creamy-white eggs in a nest beside a rushing river high in the Rocky Mountains. Your dad flew back to the West Coast before you hatched.

Within a few months, you grew your flight feathers and it was time to follow your mom to migrate west to the coast. A short while later you joined other sea ducks along the marshy shores of Vancouver Island. Not all ducks fly south!

Download your certificate here to share with your friends and family.

Fast Facts:

• diving duck—dives deep in the ocean for food
• eats fish and other small sea life
• likes estuaries, special types of wetlands formed where rivers enter the ocean
• found on both the east and west coasts of Canada
• The Harlequin is very rare in parts of Canada and was the first duck species to be added to Canada’s list of threatened and endangered species. Harlequins nest on fast flowing rivers and may be disturbed by people who enjoy sport rafting