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Profiles
Northern Pintail
(Anas acuta)
Photo © Brian E. Small, Los Angeles
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This duck takes its name from the male's distinctively pointed tail. These ducks like to move around, and may winter in Louisiana one year, California the next. In drought years, when the pintails' traditional breeding habitat has dried up, the Arctic Coastal Plain becomes essential breeding grounds for pintails, with 40-60% of the population breeding in Alaska in drought years.
Nests are usually hidden under tall grasses and other vegetation and lined with down plucked by the female from her breast. The males leave the females in mid-June, flocking together on large lakes on the Refuge. The females stay with the young until late August, when they're able to fly.
Migration:
South through Canada and on to wintering grounds in California. Some also winter in Texas, Mexico and the eastern U.S.
Maximum migration (one-way): 4,500 miles
Altitude: 1,000 - 3,000 feet
Four page factsheet:
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