Day 24: Northern Pintail

A few weekends ago while we were visiting Maryland's eastern shore, we saw some beautiful Northern Pintail ducks in a neighborhood lake. The Northern Pintail's name is derived from the male's two long black tail feathers, which look like a single pin or twig.

Northern Pintails breed in the northern ranges of Europe, Asia, and North America and each winter migrate south. In North America, they are among the earliest nesting ducks, beginning soon after the ice melts in many northern areas.

Breeding males are handsome birds, with chocolate colored heads and gray, brown, and black patterns on the back and sides. They have a thin white stripe running from the back of the head down the neck to the white bottom torso. Females are duller, as is the norm, with drab brown feathers. We saw both males and females on our trip.

Here's a better photo of a male and female (not ours):

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