The Mandarin Duck has not been accepted to the North
American list by the American Ornithologists Union Checklist Committee or the
American Birding Association Checklist Committee, anywhere in North
America. If you want to play by the “rules” you can
not count this species anywhere in North America,
whether you find them breeding or not. If you don’t care about the
“rules” there are a lot of exotics out there to add to your North
American list that have been around for a long time! Your lists are
personal and you can count whatever you want on them, that is until you submit
any list for publication and then you should play by the rules of whoever your
submitting your list to. In most cases that would be according to whatever the
A.O.U. or A.B.A. accepts.
Steve Summers