The Pintail or Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) is a duck with a wide geographic distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and North America. These birds (which are all male) were seen at the Slimbridge WWT reserves in Gloucestershire in the UK.
They are a large duck, about the same size as the closely related but probably more familiar Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). Both males and females of this species have the long, fine tail that gives them their common name. Only the males have the distinctive white neck stripe.
Only abut 20 pairs of this species breed in the UK, but in winter almost 30,000 birds may be present as they migrate south from their more northern breeding grounds.
I remember the first time I ever saw this species was on an urban pond in Gateshead in the NE of the UK. I got rather excited!
I must try harder not to be just distracted by the showy males when I am photographing birds!
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It is the most elegant of ducks - dressed as though by a bespoke tailor of the highest quality.
ReplyDeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteA delightful dude of a duck 🦆😁 YAM xx
Handsome.
ReplyDeleteThe pintail is an elegant creature
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