March 13, 2019 – The elegant and quite handsome male Northern pintail duck in its’ full breeding plumage stands out among the other waterfowl. During the breeding season the male pintail has elongated tail feathers and a striking overall enhanced and well defined coloration of gray, bright-white, coal-black, and chocolate- brown. The breeding male pintail is a sleek long-necked duck with a blue bill outlined in black, with iridescent green or an almost black speculum on the secondary wing feathers that are visible in flight.
The Northern pintail is a long distance migrant with a winter range stretching from Central America, Mexico, Cuba, and coast-to-coast across the southern half of the United States. During the breeding season pintail ducks nest on the Great Plains east across the Great lakes and north throughout Canada and Alaska. According to the National Wildlife Federation “In general, pintails breed in prairie habitats-open country near lakes, rivers, and wetlands dominated by low vegetation and small, shallow water bodies, such as prairie potholes of the Midwestern United States.”
This is the time of the year, late winter, when we see those migrating Northern pintail ducks in our area. Most often flocks of pintail are in the company of many other migrating species of ducks and geese that are slowly working their way north waiting for that exact moment to continue that journey to their summer nesting habitat. Staging can last a number of weeks, the ducks use the open shallow waters of our wetlands and the flooded agricultural fields for resting, feeding, and pairing up for the nesting season. This is when we have the opportunity to see that beautiful plumage of the male Northern pintails as they swim, feed, and rest and try to impress the females.