30 June 2012

The "Harleking" - a celebrity bird

A brief follow up on the increasingly famous Harlequin duck in Persfjorden, Varanger

The adult male Harlequin Duck or the "Harleking", is now quite the celebrity in Varanger. The first photo on the Norwegian bird log www.artsobservasjoner.no/fugler have been seen more then 1700 times. On the danish bird forum Netfugl.dk the Harlequin photo have been seen more then 800 times. The article describing the find, released on Martin Garners Birding Frontiers blog was read 1600 times the first day. In Varanger the bird have now been seen by a couple of hundred birders! The "Harleking" also made it the regional newspaper Finnmarken.

New bird news service:
In collaboration with www.birdlife.no we are now running a Varanger / Finnmark bird news service with many of the local guesthouses hotels, etc in Varanger included in a sms-group recieving the latest bird news from the region. We have also launched a twitter service dedicated to the latest bird news in Varanger and Finnmark, see @Finnmarkbirding. You will find it in the sidebar on this website, and soon to come on several other websites (if you want the @Finnmarkbirding twitterfeed on your website, then drop me a mail). 

For more details on where to find the bird see the Birding Frontiers article:

I just came back from another trip to the outer Varanger fjord and the magnificent Harlequin Duck is still present, and showing very well!

Harlequin Duck (Harlekinand, Histrionicus histrionicus) prefers the company of Long-tailed Duck 

 That is the Harlequin in the centre of the photo, with Harlequin-finder Anders Mæland. Good birding in Varanger!
 Now seen by lots of birders
Where to find the Harlequin Duck, see orange arrow. Vardø island to the right.
 The celebrity duck




This bird completes the exclusive selection of very cool ducks that can be found in Varanger this summer.

Tormod A. / Biotope

twitter @BiotopeOffice