Range Circumpolar. Oldsquaw breeds in North America from Alaska east across most of northern Canada. Also breeds in Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, and east across arctic Russia. Winters along the Pacific coast of North America from the Bering Sea south rarely to California; from Greenland, eastern North America, and Labrador south, including the Great Lakes, to South Carolina. In Europe, winters from Iceland, Scandinavia and western Russia south to central Europe and in Asia from Caucasia to Iran, Korea, eastern China and Japan.

Status Uncommon to locally very common winter visitant and migrant along coastal British Columbia; very rare winter visitant and rare migrant in the interior. In summer, very rare to uncommon along the coast; very rare in the interior. Breeds (one old record).

Status Change No change.

Nonbreeding The Oldsquaw is distributed primarily along coastal British Columbia; it is a sporadic wanderer to the interior of the province. The Oldsquaw frequents a variety of coastal waters. Most birds were observed in the deeper waters of straits, bays, harbours, channels, and fiords, although usually they were adjacent to points, spits, peninsulas, rocky islets, or reefs. Other habitats include estuaries, offshore waters, mudflats, and rarely, larger lakes and rivers. R.S. Palmer (1976) describes the Oldsquaw as almost pelagic, but few records in British Columbia are from beyond sight of land. In the interior, birds are found on lakes (to 1,500 m elevation), ponds, sloughs, rivers, and sewage lagoons. Spring migration may begin by late February, although it is difficult to detect as local movements to Pacific herring spawning sites tend to mask the northward movement. Most observations record flocks numbering less than 50 birds; however, during the Pacific herring spawn, Oldsquaw concentrations in the thousands are not uncommon, particularly in the Ganges, Powell River, and Qualicum Beach areas. The inshore and northward coastal movement continues through May on the south coast and early June in the north, although few individuals remain along the south coast after mid-April. In summer, individuals, possibly moulting birds, early migrants, or unfit birds, remain scattered along the coast; a few remain on northern lakes. Boundary Bay supports the largest known summer population on the coast (Vermeer and Levings 1977; Savard 1981). Oldsquaws are late migrants from their northern breeding areas; the autumn movement in British Columbia is concentrated in October and November with numbers increasing along the south coast into December. In the interior, most Oldsquaw reports from the Okanagan valley and west Kootenay involve autumn migrants; spring migrants make up the bulk o f the observations from the Chilcotin-Cariboo and Peace Lowlands. Major wintering areas along the coast include the Strait of Georgia from Comox south to Victoria and the northern Queen Charlotte Islands.

Breeding Nests Eggs Nest Success There is one breeding record for British Columbia: a flightless young was taken at Log Cabin, north of White Pass, on 1 September 1927, with primaries still in sheaths (Brooks 1927). Several flying broods were also observed. That record is some distance from the known regular breeding range (Palmer, R.S. 1976b; Bellrose 1976). Since 1927, there have been no nests, eggs, or young found for Oldsquaw, nor any evidence that the birds still breed in the province.

Nests:  Not available Eggs: Not available Nest Success: Not available

Remarks Known in the Old World as Long-tailed Duck. POSTSCRIPT: Between 17 and 19 July 1989, a brood of four downy young and another of eight were identified on Blackfly Lake (5915'N, 130 51'W) in northwestern British Columbia (W. Nixon pers. comm.)