The Northern pintail (Anas acuta) is a duck species that has a wide geographic distribution. Unusually for a bird with such a large range, it has no geographical subspecies if the possibly conspecific duck Eaton's pintail is considered to be a separate species. The Northern pintail is a large bird, and the male's long central tail feathers give rise to the species' English and scientific names.
Northern pintails breed across northern areas of the Palearctic south to about Poland and Mongolia, and in Canada, Alaska, and the Midwestern United States. Mainly in winters south of their breeding range, reaches almost to the equator in Panama, northern sub-Saharan Africa, and tropical South Asia. Small numbers migrate to Pacific islands, particularly Hawaii, where a few hundred birds winter on the main islands. In parts of the range, such as Great Britain and the northwestern United States, pintails may be present all year. The breeding habitat of Northern pintails is open unwooded wetlands, such as wet grassland, lakeside, or tundra. In winter, they can be found in a wider range of open habitats, such as sheltered estuaries, brackish marshes, coastal lagoons, and flooded and dry agricultural fields.
The Northern pintail broadly overlaps in size with the similarly widespread mallard, but is more slender, elongated, and gracile, with a relatively longer neck and (in males) a longer tail. The unmistakable breeding plumaged male has a chocolate-brown head and white breast with a white stripe extending up the side of the neck. Its upperparts and sides are grey, but elongated grey feathers with black central stripes are draped across the back from the shoulder area. The vent area is yellow, contrasting with the black underside of the tail, which has the central feathers elongated to as much as 10 cm (3.9 in). The bill is bluish and the legs are blue-grey. The adult female is mainly scalloped and mottled in light brown with a more uniformly grey-brown head, and its pointed tail is shorter than the male's; it is still easily identified by its shape, long neck, and long grey bill. In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake pintail looks similar to the female but retains the male upperwing pattern and long grey shoulder feathers. Juvenile birds resemble the female, but are less neatly scalloped and have a duller brown speculum with a narrower trailing edge.
