Northern pintail | |
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Male and female (left–right) ⓘ | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Anseriformes |
Family: | Anatidae |
Genus: | Anas |
Species: | A. acuta |
Binomial name | |
Anas acuta | |
Range of A. acuta Breeding Passage Non-breeding Vagrant (seasonality uncertain) | |
Synonyms | |
Dafila acuta |
The pintail or northern pintail (Anas acuta) is a duck species with wide geographic distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and North America. It is migratory and winters south of its breeding range to the equator. Unusually for a bird with such a large range, it has no geographical subspecies if the possibly conspecific duck Eaton's pintail is considered to be a separate species.
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 drake is more striking, having a thin white stripe running from the back of its chocolate-coloured head down its neck to its mostly white undercarriage. The drake also has attractive grey, brown, and black patterning on its back and sides. The hen's plumage is more subtle and subdued, with drab brown feathers similar to those of other female dabbling ducks. Hens make a coarse quack and the drakes a flute-like whistle.
The northern pintail is a bird of open wetlands which nests on the ground, often some distance from water. It feeds by dabbling for plant food and adds small invertebrates to its diet during the nesting season. It is highly gregarious when not breeding, forming large mixed flocks with other species of duck. This duck's population is affected by predators, parasites and avian diseases. Human activities, such as agriculture, hunting and fishing, have also had a significant impact on numbers. Nevertheless, owing to the huge range and large population of this species, it is not threatened globally.
This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Anas acuta. [2] The scientific name comes from two Latin words: anas, meaning "duck", and acuta, which comes from the verb acuere, "to sharpen"; the species term like the English name, refers to the pointed tail of the male in breeding plumage. [3] Within the large dabbling duck genus Anas, [2] the northern pintail's closest relatives are other pintails, such as the yellow-billed pintail (A. georgica) and Eaton's pintail (A. eatoni). The pintails are sometimes separated in the genus Dafila (described by Stephens, 1824), an arrangement supported by morphological, molecular and behavioural data. [4] [5] [6] The famous British ornithologist Sir Peter Scott gave this name to his daughter, the artist Dafila Scott. [7]
Eaton's pintail has two subspecies, A. e. eatoni (the Kerguelen pintail) of Kerguelen Islands, and A. e. drygalskyi (the Crozet pintail) of Crozet Islands, and was formerly considered conspecific with the Northern Hemisphere's northern pintail. Sexual dimorphism is much less marked in the southern pintails, with the male's breeding appearance being similar to the female plumage. Unusually for a species with such a large range, northern pintail has no geographical subspecies if Eaton's pintail is treated as a separate species. [8]
A claimed extinct subspecies from Manra Island, Tristram's pintail, A. a. modesta, appears to be indistinguishable from the nominate form. [9] The three syntype specimens of Dafila modesta Tristram (Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1886, p.79. pl. VII), the extinct subspecies, are held in the vertebrate zoology collections of National Museums Liverpool at World Museum, with accession numbers NML-VZ T11792 (male immature), NML-VZ T11795 (female adult) and NML-VZ T11797 (female adult). [10] The specimens were collected by J. V. Arundel in Sydney Island (Manra Island), Phoenix Islands in 1885 and came to the Liverpool national collection via Canon Henry Baker Tristram's collection which was purchased in 1896. [10]
The northern pintail is a fairly large duck with a wing chord of 23.6–28.2 cm (9.3–11.1 in) and wingspan of 80–95 cm (31–37 in). [11] The male is 59–76 cm (23–30 in) in length and weighs 450–1,360 g (0.99–3.00 lb), and therefore is considerably larger than the female, which is 51–64 cm (20–25 in) long and weighs 454–1,135 g (1.001–2.502 lb). [12] 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. The unmistakable breeding plumaged male has a chocolate-brown head and white breast with a white stripe extending up the side of the neck. Its upperparts and sides are grey, but elongated grey feathers with black central stripes are draped across the back from the shoulder area. The vent area is yellow, contrasting with the black underside of the tail, [8] which has the central feathers elongated to as much as 10 cm (3.9 in). The bill is bluish and the legs are blue-grey. [13]
The adult female is mainly scalloped and mottled in light brown with a more uniformly grey-brown head, and its pointed tail is shorter than the male's; it is still easily identified by its shape, long neck, and long grey bill. [8] In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake pintail looks similar to the female, but retains the male upperwing pattern and long grey shoulder feathers. Juvenile birds resemble the female, but are less neatly scalloped and have a duller brown speculum with a narrower trailing edge. [14]
The pintail walks well on land, and swims well. [8] In water, the swimming posture is forward leaning, with the base of the neck almost flush with the water. [13] It has a very fast flight, with its wings slightly swept-back, rather than straight out from the body like other ducks. In flight, the male shows a black speculum bordered white at the rear and pale rufous at the front, whereas the female's speculum is dark brown bordered with white, narrowly at the front edge but very prominently at the rear, being visible at a distance of 1,600 m (1 mi). [14]
The male's call is a soft proop-proop whistle, similar to that of the common teal, whereas the female has a mallard-like descending quack, and a low croak when flushed. [8]
This dabbling duck breeds across northern areas of the Palearctic south to about Poland and Mongolia, [12] and in Canada, Alaska and the Midwestern United States. It mainly winters south of its breeding range, reaching almost to the equator in Panama, northern sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South Asia. Small numbers migrate to Pacific islands, particularly Hawaii, where a few hundred birds winter on the main islands in shallow wetlands and flooded agricultural habitats. [8] Transoceanic journeys also occur: a bird that was caught and ringed in Labrador, Canada, was shot by a hunter in England nine days later, [12] and Japanese-ringed birds have been recovered from six US states east to Utah and Mississippi. [15] In parts of the range, such as Great Britain and the northwestern United States, the pintail may be present all year. [14] [16]
The northern pintail's breeding habitat is open unwooded wetlands, such as wet grassland, lakesides or tundra. In winter, it will utilise a wider range of open habitats, such as sheltered estuaries, brackish marshes and coastal lagoons. It is highly gregarious outside the breeding season and forms very large mixed flocks with other ducks. [8]
Both sexes reach sexual maturity at one year of age. The male mates with the female by swimming close to her with his head lowered and tail raised, continually whistling. If there is a group of males, they will chase the female in flight until only one drake is left. The female prepares for copulation, which takes place in the water, by lowering her body; the male then bobs his head up and down and mounts the female, taking the feathers on the back of her head in his mouth. After mating, he raises his head and back and whistles. [12]
Among the earliest species to breed in the spring, northern pintails typically form pairs during migration, or even while still on wintering grounds. [17] [18] Breeding takes place between April and June, with the nest being constructed on the ground and hidden amongst vegetation in a dry location, often some distance from water. It is a shallow scrape on the ground lined with plant material and down. [8] The female lays seven to nine cream-coloured eggs at the rate of one per day; [12] the eggs are 55 mm × 38 mm (2.2 in × 1.5 in) in size and weigh 45 g (1.6 oz), of which 7% is shell. [19] If predators destroy the first clutch, the female can produce a replacement clutch as late as the end of July. [12] The hen alone incubates the eggs for 22 to 24 days before they hatch. The precocial downy chicks are then led by the female to the nearest body of water, where they feed on dead insects on the water surface. The chicks fledge in 46 to 47 days after hatching, but stay with the female until she has completed moulting. [12]
Around three-quarters of chicks live long enough to fledge, but not more than half of those survive long enough to reproduce. [12] The maximum recorded age is 27 years and 5 months for a Dutch bird. [19]
The pintail feeds by dabbling and upending in shallow water for plant food mainly in the evening or at night, and therefore spends much of the day resting. [8] Its long neck enables it to take food items from the bottom of water bodies up to 30 cm (12 in) deep, which are beyond the reach of other dabbling ducks like the mallard. [13]
The winter diet is mainly plant material including seeds and rhizomes of aquatic plants, but the pintail sometimes feeds on roots, grain and other seeds in fields, though less frequently than other Anas ducks. [13] During the nesting season, this bird eats mainly invertebrate animals, including aquatic insects, molluscs and crustaceans. [12]
Pintail nests and chicks are vulnerable to predation by mammals, such as foxes and badgers, and birds like gulls, crows and magpies. The adults can take flight to escape terrestrial predators, but nesting females in particular may be surprised by large carnivores such as bobcats. [12] Large birds of prey, such as northern goshawks, will take ducks from the ground, and some falcons, including the gyrfalcon, have the speed and power to catch flying birds. [20]
It is susceptible to a range of parasites including Cryptosporidium , Giardia , tapeworms, blood parasites and external feather lice, [21] [22] [23] [24] and is also affected by other avian diseases. It is often the dominant species in major mortality events from avian botulism and avian cholera, [25] and can also contract avian influenza, the H5N1 strain of which is highly pathogenic and occasionally infects humans. [26]
The northern pintail is a popular species for game shooting because of its speed, agility, and excellent eating qualities, and is hunted across its range. [27] [28] Although one of the world's most numerous ducks, [19] the combination of hunting with other factors has led to population declines, and local restrictions on hunting have been introduced at times to help conserve numbers. [29]
This species' preferred habitat of shallow water is naturally susceptible to problems such as drought or the encroachment of vegetation, but this duck's habitat might be increasingly threatened by climate change. [19] Populations are also affected by the conversion of wetlands and grassland to arable crops, depriving the duck of feeding and nesting areas. Spring planting means that many nests of this early breeding duck are destroyed by farming activities, [30] and a Canadian study showed that more than half of the surveyed nests were destroyed by agricultural work such as ploughing and harrowing. [31]
Hunting with lead shot, along with the use of lead sinkers in angling, has been identified as a major cause of lead poisoning in waterfowl, which often feed off the bottom of lakes and wetlands where the shot collects. [32] A Spanish study showed that northern pintail and common pochard were the species with the highest levels of lead shot ingestion, higher than in northern countries of the western Palearctic flyway, where lead shot has been banned. [33] In the United States, Canada, and many western European countries, all shot used for waterfowl must now be non-toxic, and therefore may not contain any lead. [34] [35] [36]
The northern pintail has a large range, estimated at 41,900,000 km2 (16,200,000 sq mi), and a population estimated at 4.8–4.9 million individuals. The IUCN has categorised the northern pintail as not being threatened globally, [1] however it is endangered in Europe. [37]
In the Palaearctic, breeding populations are declining in much of the range, including its stronghold in Russia. In other regions, populations are stable or fluctuating. [38]
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. [25]
The northern pintail is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies, [39] but it has no special status under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which regulates international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants. [12]
Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form taxon; they do not represent a monophyletic group, since swans and geese are not considered ducks. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water.
The gadwall is a common and widespread dabbling duck in the family Anatidae.
The Eurasian wigeon or European wigeon, also known as the widgeon or the wigeon, is one of three species of wigeon in the dabbling duck genus Mareca. It is common and widespread within its Palearctic range.
The American wigeon, also known as the baldpate, is a species of dabbling duck found in North America. Formerly assigned to Anas, this species is classified with the other wigeons in the dabbling duck genus Mareca. It is the New World counterpart of the Eurasian wigeon.
The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa. Belonging to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae, mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.
The Eurasian teal, common teal, or Eurasian green-winged teal is a common and widespread duck that breeds in temperate Eurosiberia and migrates south in winter. The Eurasian teal is often called simply the teal due to being the only one of these small dabbling ducks in much of its range. The bird gives its name to the blue-green colour teal.
The American black duck is a large dabbling duck in the family Anatidae. It was described by William Brewster in 1902. It is the heaviest species in the genus Anas, weighing 720–1,640 g (1.59–3.62 lb) on average and measuring 54–59 cm (21–23 in) in length with an 88–95 cm (35–37 in) wingspan. It somewhat resembles the female and eclipse male mallard in coloration, but has a darker plumage. The male and female are generally similar in appearance, but the male's bill is yellow while the female's is dull green with dark marks on the upper mandible. It is native to eastern North America. During the breeding season, it is usually found in coastal and freshwater wetlands from Saskatchewan to the Atlantic in Canada and the Great Lakes and the Adirondacks in the United States. It is a partially migratory species, mostly wintering in the east-central United States, especially in coastal areas.
The wood duck or Carolina duck is a partially migratory species of perching duck found in North America. The male is one of the most colorful North American waterfowls.
The mandarin duck is a perching duck species native to the East Palearctic. It is sexually dimorphic- the males are elaborately coloured, and the females are not. It is medium-sized, at 41–49 cm (16–19 in) long with a 65–75 cm (26–30 in) wingspan. It is closely related to the North American wood duck, the only other member of the genus Aix. 'Aix' is an Ancient Greek word which was used by Aristotle to refer to an unknown diving bird, and 'galericulata' is the Latin for a wig, derived from galerum, a cap or bonnet. Outside of its native range, the mandarin duck has a large introduced population in the British Isles and Western Europe, with additional smaller introductions in North America.
The king eider is a large sea duck that breeds along Northern Hemisphere Arctic coasts of northeast Europe, North America and Asia. The birds spend most of the year in coastal marine ecosystems at high latitudes, and migrate to Arctic tundra to breed in June and July. They lay four to seven eggs in a scrape on the ground lined with grass and down.
The yellow-billed duck is a 51–58 cm long dabbling duck which is an abundant resident breeder in southern and eastern Africa. This duck is not migratory, but wanders in the dry season to find suitable waters. It is highly gregarious outside the breeding season and forms large flocks.
The Indian spot-billed duck is a species of large dabbling duck that is a non-migratory breeding duck throughout freshwater wetlands in the Indian subcontinent. The name is derived from the red spot at the base of the bill that is found in the mainland Indian population. When in water it can be recognized from a long distance by the white tertials that form a stripe on the side, and in flight it is distinguished by the green speculum with a broad white band at the base. This species and the eastern spot-billed duck were formerly considered conspecific, together called the spot-billed duck.
The grey teal is a dabbling duck found in open wetlands in Australia and New Zealand.
The falcated duck or falcated teal is a gadwall-sized dabbling duck from the east Palearctic.
The Pacific black duck is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the north and French Polynesia in the east. It is usually called the grey duck in New Zealand, where it is also known by its Māori name, pārera.
Bernier's teal, also known as the Madagascar teal, is a species of duck in the genus Anas. It is endemic to Madagascar, where it is found only along the west coast. Part of the "grey teal" complex found throughout Australasia, it is most closely related to the Andaman teal.
The blue-billed duck is a small Australian stiff-tailed duck, with both the male and female growing to a length of 40 cm (16 in). The male has a slate-blue bill which changes to bright-blue during the breeding season, hence the duck's common name. The male has deep chestnut plumage during breeding season, reverting to a dark grey. The female retains black plumage with brown tips all year round. The duck is endemic to Australia's temperate regions, inhabiting natural inland wetlands and also artificial wetlands, such as sewage ponds, in large numbers. It can be difficult to observe due to its cryptic nature during its breeding season through autumn and winter. The male duck exhibits a complex mating ritual. The blue-billed duck is omnivorous, with a preference for small aquatic invertebrates. BirdLife International has classified this species as Least concern. Major threats include drainage of deep permanent wetlands, or their degradation as a result of introduced fish, peripheral cattle grazing, salinization, and lowering of ground water.
The South Georgia pintail, also misleadingly known as the South Georgian teal, is the nominate subspecies of the yellow-billed pintail, a duck in the dabbling duck subfamily Anatinae. It is endemic to the large (3,756 km2) subantarctic island of South Georgia and its accompanying archipelago, and is a vagrant to the South Sandwich Islands. It was among the birds noted by James Cook in January 1775, on the occasion of the first recorded landing on South Georgia, and was formerly considered a full species.
The Chilean pintail, also known as the golden peck duck or brown pintail, is a subspecies of the yellow-billed pintail, a duck in the dabbling duck subfamily Anatinae. Its local names are pato jergón grande, pato maicero and pato piquidorado in Spanish, and marreca-parda or marreca-danada in Portuguese.
The eastern spot-billed duck or Chinese spot-billed duck is a species of dabbling duck that breeds in East and Southeast Asia. This species was formerly considered a subspecies of the Indian spot-billed duck and both were referred to as the spot-billed duck. The name is derived from the yellow spot on the bill.
A. cauda acuminata elongata subtus nigra, occipite utrinque linea alba