Northern Pintail couple?

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Northern Pintail couple?

December 27, 2016 by Mike Powell

It was really cool yesterday to see some elegant Northern Pintail ducks (Anas acuta) poking about in the distant weeds of Huntley Meadows Park. At first I thought that the ducks in this first image were male-female couple. The more I look at the image, however, the more I think the duck in the foreground may be an immature male that will eventually look like the male in the background. The Northern Pintails in the second image look more to me like a male-female couple.

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter | Tagged Alexandria VA, Anas acuta, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern Pintail, Northern Pintail Duck, Tamron 150-600mm | 9 Comments

9 Responses

on December 27, 2016 at 9:32 am | Reply Vicki

in agreement that it is an immature male in the first and a female in the second..
- on December 27, 2016 at 9:36 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks so much, Vicki, for your quick response. Immature birds often confuse me, so I wasn’t really confident with my initial identifications.
  - on December 27, 2016 at 9:39 am Vicki
    
    this link has photos of transitional male and female.. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Pintail/id
on December 27, 2016 at 9:35 am | Reply AJ

Woww…
on December 27, 2016 at 9:35 am | Reply AJ

Such a cute couple..
- on December 28, 2016 at 5:27 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, AJ
on December 27, 2016 at 10:54 am | Reply Jet Eliot

I think the pintails are the most elegant duck we have in the U.S.. Your photos are lovely, Mike.
on December 27, 2016 at 11:13 am | Reply Victor Rakmil

Beautiful
on December 27, 2016 at 5:36 pm | Reply svtakeiteasy

Lovely shot with the patterns on the water mirroring those on the birds’ plumage.