From Opus

Anas acuta

Male. Photo by dahyon

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

[edit] 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
• Although female may look like female Mallard, you can tell the difference by the missing teal section in the back of the bird.

[edit] Distribution

Iceland, Northern Europe, Russia, China, North America, and Canada. Common on most lakes.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Habitat

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

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Voice

[edit] External Links

• View more images of this species on Orientalbirdimages