Species profile
Pintail
Anas acuta
At a glance
Pintail (Anas acuta) is an IUCN Least Concern birds regulated in 2 of 66 jurisdictions tracked by CatchRules across the U.S. and Canada.
Bag limits are uniform at 3 per angler across the 2 regulating jurisdictions.
Confirmed by 40,161 research-grade iNaturalist observations, with California, Texas, and British Columbia the top jurisdictions by observation count.
Notable details
- Male pintails sport a 4-inch pointed tail spike, one of the most distinctive silhouettes among North American ducks.
- One of the most widespread ducks in the world, breeding across the entire Northern Hemisphere.
- Among the earliest fall migrants—some birds leave breeding areas as soon as late July.
- They are dabblers, tipping tail-up in shallow water to graze on seeds and aquatic plants.
- Pintails winter as far south as Central America and Hawaii after breeding across northern Canada and Alaska.
Where Pintail are seen
Jurisdictions with rules for Pintail
Background
The pintail or northern pintail (Anas acuta) is a duck with wide geographic distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe, Asia and North America. It is migratory and winters south of its breeding range to the equator. 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.
Background excerpt adapted from Wikipedia's Pintail article (CC BY-SA). Visit Wikipedia for the full entry.
Other birds on CatchRules
Photo credit: iNaturalist / Wikipedia. Identification reference only — verify regulations with the issuing wildlife agency before retaining a catch.