Northern Pintail

December brings the wintering ducks to Central Texas.  The Northern Pintail is probably one of the most elegant of the waterfowl with its distinctive long tail.  The males have a white breast with a thin white strip running up the neck, the females are drab but also have the longer tail.  During breeding season the male’s tale is  longer and very black.  

The Northern Shoveler is a dabbling duck spending much of its time with its head underwater and tail feathers high in the air as it feeds on aquatic insects, crustaceans and snails.
They can also feed on land eating grain, seeds, and weeds.

The Northern Shoveler is found as a year round resident in the mountains of some of the western states. The summer range extends through most of western Canada into Alaska. They spend the winter from a line even with Kansas south into northern South America. Northern pintails are one of the earliest nesting birds beginnning as soon as the ice is gone. They build their nests in areas with shallow seasonal wet lands or in low vegetation. The nest is not near the water rather on the ground in brush or grass. It is lined with grass and down. The clutch is three to twelve eggs. Ducklings hatch precocial, covered in down and albs to leave the nest and follow the parents soon after hatching.

In Central Texas they can be found in any of our farm ponds or local lakes.

Sadly the Northern Pintail is listed by the 2014 State of the Birds as a Common Bird in Steep Decline. The North American Breeding Bird Surveys show a rate of 2.6% per year decline between 1966 and 2012 – a cumulative decline of 72%.