Northern pintails (Anas acuta) are dabbling ducks, feeding on the surface of the water by filtering out seeds and insects. They nest on the ground in open habitats like unwooded wetlands, grasslands or tundra, relying on camouflaged plumage to protect their eggs.
This is a large duck, and the male’s long central tail feathers give rise to the species’ English and scientific names. Both sexes have blue-grey bills and grey legs and feet.
The northern pintail broadly overlaps in size with the similarly widespread mallard, but is more slender, elongated and gracile, with a relatively longer neck and (in males) a longer tail.
This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
Northern pintails migrate at night, reaching speeds of 48 mph. The longest recorded nonstop flight was 1,800 miles. They are versatile travelers, spotted on every continent except Antarctica.
The longest recorded waterfowl journey goes to a pintail that started in California and was tracked all the way north of the Black Sea, more than 9,000 miles away.
Once one of the most abundant ducks in North America, pintails have experienced population declines since the 1950s, resulting in lower but relatively stable numbers since the late 1990s.
Pintails in North America have been badly affected by avian diseases, though it is unclear if this issue extends to other regions. Specifically, the breeding population fell from more than 10 million in 1957 to 3.5 million by 1964.
Although the species has recovered from that low point, the breeding population in 1999 was 30% below the long-term average, despite years of major efforts focused on restoring the species. In 1997, an estimated 1.5 million water birds, the majority being northern pintails, died from avian botulism during two outbreaks in Canada and Utah.
Protecting wetland habitats is critical to ensuring their future, which have been known to live up to 22 years in the wild.
Read more about birds in New York State.
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