Click on the Northern Pintail Stretching image to enlarge

Northern Pintail Stretching

Northern Pintail Stretching was a photograph taken at the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge.

The Colusa National Wildlife Refuge is an outstanding refuge located in the Pacific Flyway of California.

The refuge has an excellent auto tour route that provides excellent opportunities for viewing and photographing migratory wildlife at the refuge.

The Northern Pintail is a widely occurring duck and is often seen at the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge. The Northern Pintail has been called the “nomads of the skies” due to their wide-ranging migrations.

The Northern Pintail is named due to their long pointed tail. This Northern Pintail Stretching is a bird of open wetlands. These birds nest on the ground, often some distance from water. This Northern Pintail Stretching feeds by dabbling for plant food.  The birds long neck enables it to take food items from the bottom of water bodies.

This Northern Pintail Stretching is a highly gregarious bird when not breeding; forming large mixed flocks with other species of duck.

The Northern Pintail is a popular species for game shooting because of its speed, agility, and excellent eating qualities.  The bird is hunted across its range. Although one of the world’s most numerous ducks, the combination of hunting and other factors has led to population declines. Local restrictions on hunting have been introduced at times to help conserve numbers. Lead poisoning due to lead shot has been a contributing factor to population declines and lead shot is no longer allowed in many countries.

The Colusa National Wildlife Refuge where this Northern Pintail Stretching photograph was taken is one of six refuges in the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex. The refuge is located in the Sacramento Valley of north-central California. The refuge is about 70 miles north of the metropolitan area of Sacramento.

The Colusa National Wildlife Refuge typically supports wintering populations of more than 200,000 ducks and 50,000 geese. It is an excellent refuge to photograph wildlife behavior such as this Northern Pintail Stretching.