Anas acuta - Northern Pintail
Feather characters. Barbules are rather short (0.75-0.82 mm) and contain lightly stippled pigment. In dry slides nodes may look very dark. Triangular nodes are located on distal end, covering less than 30% of the total barbule length. On proximal end, nodal structures are visible but undeveloped and hardly swollen, and thus too small to qualify as nodes (14-16 per mm). An abrupt increase in size of nodes is seen distally along the barbules. In a very few cases triangular nodes may not be present. Villi are absent and internodes are occasionally kinked. Short prongs are mostly located on distal end of the barbules, mostly on both sides of the pennulum. Their length varies; the longest ones are longer than 0.01 mm, but shorter than half the length of the adjacent internode.
Field characters. Size 56 cm. Weight: male 1035 g, female 986 g (Dunning, 1993). Slender, long-necked dabbling duck with pointed tail. Male with chocolate brown head and upper neck, conspicuous white neck and breast, and long pointed tail. Upperparts and flanks grey. Male in eclipse plumage and juvenile resemble female, but with darker upper parts; eclipse male has black bill with grey edges. Female difficult to distinguish from similarly coloured females of Mallard and Gadwall but has slender body and neck, pointed tail, indistinct speculum and grey bill. In flight, white trailing edge on secondaries.
Voice. Silent. Male a low pitched whistle. Female a rattling sound and low pitched "quarck".
Distribution. Rare breeding bird. Map: see MapIt.
Habitat. Marshy, open surroundings, aquatic habitats of lowland grassland or prairie. Nests in grass, heath, dunes; usually on dry ground and not near water. In winter prefers seacoasts and estuaries, floodlands and nearby inland waters.
Food. Feeds mainly from mud bottom by up-ending, taking plant material (seeds, tubers, rhizomes) and animal prey (waterbeetles, insect larvae, molluscs, crustaceans, and tadpoles).