Northern Pintail

Drake Northern Pintails are handsome ducks. Erika and I found this one on 25 November 2019 at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. These ducks are abundant across Alaska, Canada, and much of western North America. In the fall and winter, pintails eat grain, marsh plants, and invertebrates.  Clark et al. (2014) assure us that, through prudent wildlife management, pintails “should have a secure future in North America,” despite threats from predators, farming and agricultural development, water shortages, environmental contamination, and urbanization. Population numbers, nevertheless, have fallen form six million birds in the early 1970s to 3.3 million now.