HUNTING HORIZONS - Worldwide Hunting Seasons Database

Africa and tropical South Asia. In Britain, Holland, Belgium and France and the north western United States may be present all year.


MALE: Length 59-76 cm;
Weight 450-1360 gm;
Wingspan 23-29 cm.

Chocolate-brown head, wavy white stripe up side of brown neck, elongated grey feathers with black central stripes draped from the shoulder, white chest, grey body, black and yellow under tail, long spiky tails up to 10 centimetres. The bill is bluish and the legs are blue-grey.

FEMALE: Length 51-64 cm;
Weight 450-1140 gm;
Wingspan 24-29 cm.


Mainly scalloped and mottled light brown with grey-brown head, long neck, and long grey bill, small tail spike.

NON BREEDING: the drake similar to the female retains the male upper wing pattern and long grey shoulder feathers.

JUVENILE: resemble the female, but are less neatly scalloped and with duller brown speculum and narrower trailing edge.

HABITAT: Pintail are found in marshes, ponds, lakes, rivers, canals, and grain fields, such as rice, oats, wheat, and barley.

FEEDING: The Pintail feeds by dabbling and upending in shallow water. The winter diet is mainly plant material including seeds and rhizomes of aquatic plants, roots, grain and other seeds. During nesting diet includes aquatic insects, molluscs and crustaceans.

CALL: The male's call is a soft proop-proop whistle, whereas the female has a descending quack, and a low croak when flushed.

FLIGHT: Very fast flight, wings slightly swept-back, distinctively slender thanks mainly to long necks and long pointed tails. In flight, the male shows a black speculum bordered white at the rear and pale rufous at the front, whereas the female's is dark brown bordered with white, narrowly at the front edge but very prominently at the rear, visible up to 1600 metres.