Rate of Decline: 77 percent in 40 years
Global Population: 6.6 million
Continental Population: 3.6 million now, 16 million 40 years ago
Watch List Status: 
Appearance: A Mallard-sized “puddle duck” with a slim body. Male is distinctive with long, pointed black tail, gray body, and brown head, with white streak pointing up the side of the neck. Female nondescript, but tan and slim.
Vocalization: Females quack like a Mallard; males most often make a high-pitched
"wheee," like a train whistle.
Listen (© Lang Elliot, Nature Sound Studio).
Habitat: Nests in grassy uplands and untilled crop fields near shallow seasonal and semi-permanent wetlands. Winters in shallow wetlands of many types.
Range: Breeds in much of the Northern Hemisphere; in North America, it breeds in most of Alaska and Canada, in interior western U.S. states. Winters along the Pacific Coast from Alaska, south through Mexico to Costa Rica, along the Atlantic Coast from Massachusetts to Cuba, and throughout the southern United States.
Feeding: Feeds on grains (rice, wheat, corn, barley), seeds, pond weeds, aquatic insects, crustaceans, and snails it finds in dry fields, very shallow water, and at the water’s edge. Often forages in harvested grain fields. Forages alone or with its mate during the breeding season and in flocks during the non-nesting season. Either picks up food items from the ground/water or filter feeds with its bill to capture food items from the surface of the water.
Reproduction: One of the first ducks to nest in North America, and the only dabbling duck that prefers tilled cropland for nesting. Its nest, a simple bowl of grasses lined with down feathers, is highly resistant to extreme cooling – and may produce young even after experiencing snow cover and temperatures below freezing. Raises only one brood per season, but may re-nest if the clutch fails to hatch. Clutch size range is 3-12 eggs, and nests are sometimes parasitized by Redheads, Ruddy Ducks, or Mallards.
Conservation Issues & Efforts:
- Threats: Population declines of Northern Pintails reflect the spread of agriculture in the prairie potholes region of the United States and Canada. Because they nest earlier than most ducks, they suffer high nest losses when fields undergo spring seeding and cultivation. The break-up of natural grasslands for row crops in the western Dakotas is especially harmful. Global warming may cause drying of the prairie potholes.
- Outlook: Improving Northern Pintail numbers will require maintaining existing grasslands and wetlands, converting marginal croplands to grass through farm bill conservation programs, and encouraging fall planting in areas that remain in row crops.
What Can You Do:
- Protect the Boreal Forest
Promote conservation of the Canadian boreal forest by supporting the Boreal Songbird Initiative that works to save Canadian boreal habitat for all birds, specifically by fighting inappropriate logging, mining, and drilling, and by promoting the designation of protected areas.
- Preserve Farmlands
Promote strong conservation provisions in the federal farm bill, especially the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which pays farmers to keep marginal farmlands idle and supports millions of acres of good bird habitat. Contact your county’s office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) or Farm Service Agency (FSA) to find out how to increase the number of acres devoted to helping birds dependent on farmlands.
- Conserve Wetlands
Support wetlands conservation programs such as the Clean Water Act, North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), and Farm Bill conservation programs such as the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), and “swampbuster” (the rule that restricts wetlands from being converted to agriculture). Encourage governments at all levels to enact and enforce wetlands protection and water quality laws and regulations.
- Help Halt Global Warming
Back strong federal, state, and local legislation to cap greenhouse emissions, and spur alternative energy sources. Conserve energy at home and at work (http://www.audubon.org/globalWarming/BePartSolution.php).
For more Information:
References:
Austin, J.E. and M.R. Miller (1995). Northern Pintail (
Anas acuta).
The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences and Washington, DC: The American Ornithologists’ Union. Retrieved from The Birds of North America Online database:
http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/BNA/account/Northern_Pintail
Kaufman, Kenn.
Guía de campo a las aves de Norteamérica. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
