Birds of Central Oklahoma

All birds Ducks, Geese, and Waterfowl

Northern Pintail, adult male
Adult male Photo by Frank Schulenburg. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Northern Pintail

Anas acuta

Here October to February.

Recorded by Paul Marvin. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0, via xeno-canto, trimmed and volume evened out.

Look for

  1. Males have a chocolate brown head. A white stripe runs up the side of the long neck.
  2. The male's body is gray. His tail ends in long, pointed black feathers.
  3. Females are speckled tan and brown, with a gray bill. Look for the long neck and the pointed tail.

A little about it

Pintails are winter ducks here. You can find them from October to February. They're one of the first ducks to come south in fall, and one of the first to head back north. In winter they gather in big groups.

A pintail tips up to eat, with its tail in the air and its head under the water. Its long neck can reach food on the bottom in water up to 1 foot deep. Other ducks that feed this way can't reach that far. In winter it eats mostly seeds and leftover grain. In summer it eats more bugs and snails.

People call the pintail the "greyhound of the air," after the fast, slim dog. Its long, narrow wings help it fly fast. Pintails are shy and careful all year long.

Pintails nest on dry ground among short plants. The nest can be as far as half a mile from water. The mom lays about 8 eggs, and they hatch in 22 to 24 days. Within a few hours, she leads her babies away from the nest.

Fun fact

Some pintails nest far away in Siberia, in Asia. In fall they fly across the sea to spend the winter in North America.

When it's here

Taller bars mean more sightings. Most often seen in February.

More winter birds

How big

SparrowRobinCrowGoose

20 to 25 inches. A bit bigger than a crow, but slim, with a long neck.

Where to look

Shallow water with muddy edges. Check marshes and flooded fields.

  • On or by water

People have spotted it at Lake Hefner.

Could it be something else?

  • Mallard

    A female Mallard is speckled brown too, so look at the bill. Hers is orange with black smudges. A female pintail has a gray bill, a long neck, and a pointed tail.

More photos

Northern Pintail, female
Female Photo by Brooke J.. CC BY, via iNaturalist.

Where these facts come from