BIOLOGICAL DATA AND HABITAT REQUIREMENTS
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Anas acuta | Northern Pintail 



TIMING OF MAJOR LIFE HISTORY EVENTS : 
Age at first reproduction - Northern pintails become sexually mature in
their first winter of life, and most females attempt to breed as
yearlings [10].

Pair formation/breeding - Pair formation occurs over several months,
starting on wintering areas in early December and continuing through the
spring migration [10].  Pairs generally arrive on their breeding grounds
in early spring and breed from April through June [13].

Nesting - From South Dakota to Utah and California and north to Brooks,
Alberta; Redvers, Saskatchewan; and the Delta marshes, Manitoba, nesting
begins from early to mid-April.  However, cold weather just prior to
nesting may delay initiation by as much as 2 weeks [1].  Farther north,
northern pintails nest later.  At Yellowknife, Northwest Territories,
first nests were started as early as May 7 and as late as May 21.  On
the Yukon flats, northern pintails began to nest May 8 to 18 [1].

Clutch/incubation and fledging - Northern pintails generally lay between
6 and 12 eggs per nest [14].  The average clutch is eight eggs [10].
Incubation takes 22 to 23 days [14].  The ducklings fledge within 40 to
46 days [10].

Migration - After their postbreeding molt, northern pintails migrate to
wintering grounds from mid-August onwards [13].  While some are leaving
their arctic breeding grounds in Alaska in September others are arriving
on their winter grounds in California, Texas, and Louisiana [1].
Northern pintails in the northern Great Plains region are at their
greatest abundance the first week in September.  In the central Great
Plains region they are abundant through September and early October.
Small numbers of northern pintails arrive on Gulf Coast marshes and
lagoons of Louisiana and Texas in September.  The number of arrivals is
greatest through October to December.  They start to leave their
wintering grounds in late January or early February, and departure
continues through March [1].


PREFERRED HABITAT : 
Breeding habitat - The northern pintail's breeding habitat varies
greatly throughout its geographic range.  In general, however, the
northern pintail typically inhabit open country with low vegetation and
many scattered small shallow bodies of water.  It frequents lakes,
rivers, marshes, and ponds in grasslands, barrens, dry tundra, open
boreal forest, and cultivated fields [3,10,13].  Areas where water is
lined with trees are avoided, but this duck is often associated with
brushy thickets or aspen (Populus spp.) coppices around sloughs in
western Canada [10,19].  In the arctic, it is found in marshy, low
tundra where shallow freshwater lakes occur, especially those with dense
vegetation along the shoreline [10].

Winter habitat - The northern pintail's winter habitat is also diverse;
they winter on freshwater and brackish coastal marshes, shallow lagoons,
mudflats along rivers, and sheltered marine waters [3,10,13].

Nest - The northern pintail builds its nest in a hollow on dry ground
generally within 300 feet (91 m) of water.  These nests are generally
hidden in weeds and grasses or under small shrubs [13,14].  This duck
nests in stubble fields, in a dry portion within a large marsh, or in
lightly grazed pasture but generally avoid nesting in timbered or
extensively brushy areas [3].


COVER REQUIREMENTS : 
Northern pintails are associated with relatively large water areas
generally exceeding 10 acres (4 ha) [9].  They need exposed water
margins for resting [3].  These ducks prefer open shallow waters and
mudflats for resting and preening [9].  Howard and Kantrud [9] suggest
that optimal winter habitat for northern pintails should contain less
than 30 percent coverage by persistent emergent vegetation.  In Texas,
use of wetlands by northern pintails was high if relatively tall
emergent growth covered less than 20 percent of the surface; ponds with
greater than 60 percent coverage by tall emergent growth was used
little.  Northern pintails use denser cover at night than is typically
used during the day [9].  Areas with small shrubs, grass, or weeds
provide nesting cover for northern pintails [3].


FOOD HABITS : 
Northern pintails are surface feeders.  They generally feed in shallow
waters of marshes, ponds, and wet meadows or grain fields.  They mainly
consume seeds, roots, and leaves of aquatic plants, emergents, and many
terrestrial plants [10,14].  Plants commonly eaten by northern pintails
include pondweeds (Potamogeton spp.), sedges (Carex spp.), smartweed
(Polygonum spp.), fall panicum (Panicum dichotomiflorus), brownseed
paspalum (Paspalum plicatulum), panic grass (Panicum spp.), bulrush,
widgeon grass (Ruppia maritima), chufa (Cyperus spp.), and saltgrass
(Distichlis spp.) [1,3].  Northern pintails eat the grains of wheat,
barley, corn, rice, and oats.  On their wintering grounds in Texas,
northern pintails make extensive use of barley and rice grains [1].
Northern pintails also eat a small amount of animal matter such as
minnows, crawfish, fairly shrimp, tadpoles, leeches, worms, snails,
insects, and larvae [3,14,18].


PREDATORS : 
Northern pintails nest early and in more open sites than other species
of ducks and therefore may suffer greater nest loss from predation.
Predators of northern pintails include humans, crows (Corvus spp.),
skunks (Mephitis spp.), magpies (Pica spp.), gulls (Larus spp.), ground
squirrels (Spermophilus spp.), coyotes (Canis latrans), foxes (Vulpes
spp.), racoons (Procyon lotor), and badgers (Taxidea taxus) [1].


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Northern pintail nests are especially vulnerable to farming operations
because pintails nest in stubble fields.  A study of northern pintails
nesting on the Portage Plains, Manitoba, showed that farming operations
directly destroyed 57 percent of all northern pintail nests in 1956 and
41 percent of all nests in 1957.  Losses were caused by cultivation,
disking, mowing, plowing, and harrowing [1].

During drought years, many northern pintails will migrate farther north
to breeding areas of the boreal forests and subarctic and arctic deltas
[1].  Arctic coastal plain wetlands with rich invertebrate food
resources and stable water levels are important for northern pintails
during years of drought in the prairie regions [20].


REFERENCES : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Wildlife Species: Anas acuta | Northern Pintail