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| BIRD TIDBITS FUN & INTERESTING FACTS A "Did you know" Page |
| The Fun Fact Focus Bird (for this time) NORTHERN PINTAIL |
| Did you Know -The Northern Pintail is among the earliest nesting ducks in North America, nesting in the far north. -The longest recorded waterfowl journey goes to a pintail that started in California and was tracked all the way north of the Black Sea. That's more than 9000 miles away! -Pintails don't make much noise, but when they do, the male whistles and the female has a low quack. -Pintails form new pair bonds each winter, but are known to be highly promiscuous during the nesting season. -Pintails arrive on their wintering areas beginning in August, often forming large roosting and feeding flocks on open, shallow wetlands and flooded agricultural fields. -Winter habitats are threatened by water shortages, agricultural development, contamination, and urbanization. -During courtship, Pintails engage in “Pursuit Flights” that can be fast and vigorous, with rapid dives from great heights to ground-level flight. -On flights to and from nest, female flies low and lands away from nest and walks in (for safety reasons). -The new hatchlings are led from nest as soon as their down has dried. Day-old ducklings can walk or run from nest, follow adult over land and water, and feed within hours of hatching. -During migration, Pintails are gregarious and gather in large staging flocks. They migrate at night after sunset and, during fall migration, can be seen in large flocks of hundreds to thousands, -Pintails feed on grain, moist-soil and aquatic plant seeds, pond weeds, aquatic insects, crustaceans, and snails. -The oldest male pintail recorded in the wild was 21 years and 4 months old. The bird was banded in California and recovered in Idaho. -A pintail skeleton was found at 16,400 feet on the Khumbu Glacier during the 1952 expedition to Mt. Everest. |
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| Photo by James Galletto |
| Photo by James Galletto |
| Photo by Dianne |