BirdBrain Academy

Waterfowl · Anatidae

Northern Pintail sounds

Anas acuta

The Northern Pintail is a wide-ranging migratory duck of northern Europe, Asia, and North America, wintering far south of its breeding range.

Learn bird sounds freeMore Northern Pintail recordings
Northern Pintail
Photo: J.M.Garg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Listen to the Northern Pintail

Each recording below is a short excerpt with its spectrogram, a picture of the sound. Time runs left to right and higher pitches sit higher up. Play each one, then look for the same shape in the next. Different recordings of the same bird help you learn the bird, not one clip.

Call, Song · recording 1 Spectrogram of a Northern Pintail call, song: time runs left to right and pitch rises upward

Recorded by Sonothèque ADVL, Sougéal, Ille-et-Vilaine, Bretagne, 2022-03-16. XC730777 on xeno-canto, CC0 1.0. Five-second excerpt.

Nocturnal Flight Call · recording 2 Spectrogram of a Northern Pintail nocturnal flight call: time runs left to right and pitch rises upward

Recorded by Camille Vacher, Massena (near Villeneuve-d'Ascq), Nord, Hauts-de-France, 2022-04-03. XC713086 on xeno-canto, CC BY 4.0. Five-second excerpt.

What to listen for

Hens give a rough, descending quack and may make a low croak when flushed. Drakes answer with a soft, flute-like proop-proop whistle.

Many listeners write its call as “proop-proop”. Treat a written sound as a memory aid; individual birds and regions vary.

What it looks like

The Northern Pintail is a fairly large, slender duck with a long neck, blue-grey bill, and grey legs. Breeding males have a chocolate-brown head, white breast, white neck stripe, grey sides, and long pointed tail feathers, while females are mottled light brown with a shorter pointed tail.

Where to find it

It breeds in open, unwooded wetlands such as wet grasslands, lake shores, and tundra, and winters in sheltered estuaries, brackish marshes, coastal lagoons, shallow wetlands, and flooded agricultural habitats. Outside the breeding season, it gathers in very large mixed flocks and feeds by dabbling and upending in shallow water.

BirdBrain regions that include this bird

  • Alaska
  • Arctic
  • California
  • Central Asia
  • East Asia
  • Eastern Canada
  • Eastern Europe
  • Eastern Russia
  • Florida
  • Great Lakes
  • Mexico
  • Mid-Atlantic
  • New England
  • Northern Europe
  • Plains
  • Polynesia
  • Rocky Mountains
  • South Asia
  • Southeast
  • Southern Europe
  • Southwest
  • Texas
  • Western Canada
  • Western Europe
  • Western Russia

Did you know?

  • Unlike many wide-ranging birds, the Northern Pintail has no geographical subspecies when Eaton's pintail is treated separately.
  • One bird ringed in Labrador was shot in England nine days later.
  • The maximum recorded age is 27 years and 5 months for a Dutch bird.

Learn the Northern Pintail by ear

BirdBrain Academy teaches bird sounds with side-by-side listening and quizzes that use different recordings, so you learn the bird rather than one clip. Start with six free lessons, no signup needed. On your phone, Sound ID can name the birds singing around you.

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Related birds

Species notes are adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and checked for BirdBrain. Recordings come from xeno-canto under the licenses shown with each one. Photo: J.M.Garg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Identification guidance is educational; birds vary, so confirm unusual sightings with local experts or eBird.