From Opus

Revision as of 13:53, 11 May 2009

Anas acuta

Male. Photo by dahyon

Female. Photo by Gary Clark
Location: Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada

Identification

65 to 75 cm in length, while females are smaller at 50 to 55 cm.

• Pale grey bill with black stripe down centre
• Dark brown head
• White neck, breast and belly
• White finger extending up back of neck to rear part of face
• Grey flanks and back with black centres to back feathers
• Whitish patch at rear portion of flanks bordering undertail coverts
• Black undertail coverts
• Long, black central tail feathers
• Green speculum
  • White rear border and chestnut forward border

Distribution

Iceland, Northern Europe, Russia, China, North America, and Canada.

Taxonomy

Isolated southern populations of pintails from Kerguelen (eatoni) and the Crozet Islands (drygalskii) are treated either as subspecies of Northern Pintail or as full species.

Habitat

Breeds on freshwaters including flooded meadows, well-vegetated lakes or slow-flowing rivers.

Behaviour

Diet

It feeds by dabbling for plant food mainly in the evening or at night. Diet includes aquatic insects, mollusks and crustaceans as well as grasses and seeds in fields.

Breeding

The nest is a shallow scrape on the ground lined with plant material and down, in a dry location that may be fairly far from water.

Voice

External Links

• View more images of this species on Orientalbirdimages