Northern Pintail

The northern pintail is a large duck with a very wide range, breeding in northern Europe, across the Palearctic and in North America and wintering as far south as the equator. The male's long central tail feathers give the species its name. The drake has a chocolate-brown head with a thin white stripe running down the neck to white underparts; hens are drab brown. Both sexes have blue-grey bills (Wikipedia, general species account).

It nests on the ground, often some way from water, and dabbles for plant food, adding small invertebrates in the nesting season. Outside breeding it is highly gregarious and forms large mixed flocks with other ducks.