tags: Male Northern Pintail, Anas acuta, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Male Northern Pintail, Anas acuta, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Rick Wright.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Just a bit of a bird -- but what bit? Those of us who figured out that this was the head of a bird looking straight away probably figured out the species with little difficulty. We have a very tall-headed bird with a narrow crown, swollen cheeks, and two vertical stripes running down the nape and onto the mostly invisible neck. The head shape (and the watery habitat visible in the background!) should make us think of a duck, and only a male Northern Pintail fits the pattern shown here.
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White area starting on the back half of the head and running down to the front of neck makes this a male pintail.
Yup - male Northern Pintail. I've never observed one from this angle, but can't think of anything else that would look like that.
I flipped past the pintail in the field guide without noticing the stripes, but I can totally see it now that others have pointed it out. Good one!
Nice photo of a view not often noted. Male Northern pintail it is.
male Northern Pintail; very neat photo - white stripes along back side of head, as well as brown head top and forward coloring with darker brown to black on back of neck