Northern Pintail––Elegant, early and abundant

STAGING FOR FALL MIGRATION – Northern pintails are staging for migration with tundra swans in a Solomon River slough. Pintails are dabbling ducks that feed primarily on vegetation in the shallows and on the surface. When preparing for migration, pintails often can be seen feeding alongside tundra swans that dislodge aquatic vegetation from the depths. It then floats to the surface where pintails and other dabbling ducks, such as wigeons, can reach it.

Photo by Kate Persons

The northern pintail is the most common waterfowl species summering on the Seward Peninsula, and to my eye also the most elegant.

The pintail’s slender profile and long, gracefully curving neck belie the bird’s hardiness.

These delicate-looking ducks waste no time heading north. They are among the first migrants to reach us in spring, arriving to a wintry landscape just as the ice begins to melt. Pintails are also among the last waterfowl to leave in the fall.

When spring comes early, as it has this year, the first pintails can be seen in the Nome area in late April. More often they appear in early May, and later further west. Migration continues through May. Some of the long, wavy lines of pintails that pass overhead continue on, crossing the Bering Strait to breed in Russia.

The northern pintail has a circumpolar distribution. In North America their core nesting areas are in Alaska, the Prairie Pothole Region of southern Canada and the northern Great Plains.

Pintails come to the Seward Peninsula both to breed and as nonbreeding summer visitors. Their numbers fluctuate widely, but they are common across the peninsula’s wetland habitats. They like open terrain with shallow waterbodies that offer exposed mud or gravel bars, or beaches for loafing.

PAIR – A drake pintail raises his bill to his mate’s chin in a typical greeting while grazing in their tundra nesting habitat in early June. Drakes leave their mates early in incubation to molt with other males in nearby wetlands. Photo by Kate Persons

Pintails form new pair bonds each year, usually on the wintering grounds. During migration, drakes follow their mates to their traditional nesting areas.

Although pintails typically arrive on the breeding grounds in pairs, males are promiscuous during the nesting season. Both paired and unpaired drakes may engage in vigorous and aerobatic pursuit flights, chasing hens other than their mates, breeding with them by force. This behavior is not uncommon for waterfowl.

The pair, led by the hen, flies low, circular flights to inspect the nesting area. The hen selects a nest site, often at the base of a tussock or low shrub, usually in a meadow where grasses, sedges and dwarf shrubs grow.

Pintails nest further from water than do most other ducks. In the Nome River valley, a nest was found over a mile from the nearest water in a clump of willows on a hill, surrounded by rocky tundra.

The hen makes a depression in the ground and lines it with grasses and down from her breast. She lays three to twelve eggs, one per day. When the last egg is laid, she alone begins incubation for 22 to 23 days.

Egg laying occurs mainly in the last half of May and hatch begins in mid-June. The drake leaves his mate early in incubation and joins other males in nearby wetlands for the molt.

The ducklings hatch within a day of each other and are ready to leave the nest as soon as their down dries. Their mother leads them to nearby wetlands where they feed themselves.

DEFENSIVE MOTHER – A pintail hen defends her nest with a distraction display. I unknowingly walked close to an incubating hen, camouflaged in the tundra. She erupted from her nest and fluttered even closer, then dragged her wings as if injured, and led me away from her nest. Photo by Kate Persons

The hen tends her brood until they can fly, seldom leaving her ducklings unattended. She leads them to food and safety, alerting them and protecting them from danger.  She uses distraction displays such as splashing, or feigning a broken-wing, or she may swim or fly around an intruder, becoming quite aggressive in defense of her brood.

The young fledge in 36 to 43 days. Soon after mid-July the first broods are flying, and by mid-August almost all have fledged.

The first half of July is molting time for drakes, nonbreeders and hens who failed to breed successfully. They spread out in the wetlands across the peninsula, and are very secretive during this flightless period. By late July drakes begin to regain flight. The hens do not molt until their young fledge.

Pintails are “dabbling ducks” that tend to forage along the shallow edges of ponds and lakes. They feed mainly from the surface or by tipping tails-up, stretching their long necks into the water to reach deeper food. They can make short, shallow dives in some feeding situations, or to escape danger. Agile on land, pintails also forage over the tundra, moving with a bit of a waddle.

Adults are mainly vegetarians, eating seeds of aquatic plants, roots and new growth on vegetation. A duckling’s diet is mostly invertebrates such as worms, snails, aquatic insects and crustaceans, which adults also eat opportunistically. Pintails also graze on berries when they ripen.

In early August, when drakes begin to regain flight, premigratory flocks begin to form. Migration occurs throughout August and September, peaking during the second week of September. Most pintails are gone by the end of September, with a few staying until freeze up.

Pintails from this region migrate through interior Alaska and western Canada to wintering areas in Washington, Oregon, California, the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, and Mexico.

Pintail flocks migrate at night, traveling at about 48 miles per hour. The longest recorded nonstop pintail flight is 1,800 miles.

Prized for their meat throughout their range, pintails are ever-wary of humans. They blast off the water and rise steeply into the air at the slightest hint of danger. Graceful, fast and agile on the wing, they can change course abruptly with zigs and zags.

In 2024, the annual U.S. Fish and Wildlife waterfowl survey on the Seward Peninsula estimated pintail numbers to be below the long-term average since the late 1950s.

Counts on the Seward Peninsula fluctuate widely from year to year. Numbers here can be much higher in years of drought in the Prairie Pothole regions, when pintails may bypass their normal breeding area and fly northward to northern Canada, Alaska and Russia. While a few may breed in these areas, most do not.

Nationwide, the 2024 U.S. Fish and Wildlife waterfowl surveys found pintail numbers to be 49 percent below the long-term average, and similar in number to the 2023 estimate.

Populations fluctuate with environmental conditions, decreasing during drought years and rebounding in wetter years. However, overall, a 75 percent decline was documented from 1966 to 2019, and numbers remain below conservation goals.

Loss of wetland habitat, cultivation of grasslands and destruction of nests by agricultural production contribute to the decline. Attempts are being made to improve conditions for pintails and other species through habitat restoration, enhancement of agricultural lands and careful harvest management.