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Northern pintail        Images © Mark A. Chappell

Subtly colored, fast-flying, and very graceful, northern pintails can be found across most of North America.   These wintering males (plus a female below, right) were at Newport Back Bay reserve, Bolsa Chica wetlands, near Escondido, and the San Jacinto Wildlife Area near Riverside all in southern California; the birds on ice were at Bosque del Apache refuge in New Mexico.   As should be clear from several of these pictures, pintails are 'dabbling ducks' that feed by tipping their tails up while they forage on the bottom with their bills.   More pintail images are here; pictures of flying pintails can be found here.

  • Canon 1D Mk. II, 1D3, 7D, 1D4, or 7D2; 500 mm IS lens plus 1.4X or 2X converter or 800 mm IS lens, fill-in flash for portrait (2004 - 2013; 2015)