The Northern Pintail Duck

The Northern or Common pintail ( Anas acuta ) is among the most beautifully marked ducks. A pintail male in breeding plumage has a brown head, white neck and breast, and a gray back and sides. The female is grayish brown. The speculum (a brightly colored section of secondary feathers along the wing) is metallic greenish-brown with a white rear border, but far more noticeable in flight is the male's long, slender, pointed tail. The pintail is extremely graceful and fast fliers, fond of zigzagging from great heights before leveling off to land. The pintail duck can fly up to 65 mph. The drake has a flute-like whistle; the hen a soft quack .

In summer and fall, a pintail will feed largely on seeds and vegetative parts of pondweeds and widgeon grass, and on the seeds of bulrushes and smartweeds. A nesting female eats a higher proportion of aquatic insects. Sometimes a pintail will land in harvested fields to glean waste corn. It will breed mainly across Canada, the northwestern United States and in Alaska. In Pennsylvania, a pintail will migrant and become an occasional winter resident, especially in the Lake Erie region. A pintail often nests in dead herbaceous cover of the past year's growth, which may offer little concealment; the nest site is usually within 100 yards of water, but may be up to a mile away. A female lays 6-9 eggs which hatch following a fairly short incubation period of 21 days.

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