Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Breeding Range. (Fig. 24). Common throughout the Prairie Pothole Region; fairly common on the Coteau Slope; uncommon in the Turtle Mountains, in the Agassiz Lake Plain Region, and on the Missouri Slope and Little Missouri Slope.
Breeding Habitat. Wetland complexes that range in salinity from fresh to brackish. These include temporary, seasonal, and semipermanent ponds and lakes and shallow river impoundments that are managed for waterfowl use. Also of regular occurrence on stock ponds and dugouts. During years with high-water conditions, breeding Pintails are especially abundant on shallow temporary and seasonal ponds that occur on croplands in basins with tilled bottom soils. Wetlands utilized by this species often contain less vegetative cover than is required by other waterfowl.
Nesting. Breeding season: Late March to early September; peak, early April to early August. Active courtship was observed as early as March 29 [1963] in Stutsman County (RES). Extreme egg dates (110 nests): April 13 [1963] in Stutsman County (RES) to July 6 [1966] in Stutsman County (L. M. Kirsch). Of all nests with eggs that were recorded, 17 percent were found in April, 29 percent in May, 53 percent in June, and 1 percent in early July. Extreme dates of dependent young (530 broods): May 16 [1938] in Ward County, (S. H. Low) to September 7 [1967] in Benson County (P. A. Aus). Of all broods recorded, 2 percent were observed in May, 16 percent in June, 58 percent in July, 22 percent in August, and 2 percent in early September.
Pintail nests were found in a considerable variety of habitats. The great majority were found in stubble fields, planted croplands, native prairie, retired croplands, hayfields, weedy field borders, and other similar situations. During a study of waterfowl nests along a highway right-of-way in Stutsman County, Oetting and Cassel (1971) found significantly higher densities of active Pintail nests in unmowed sectors than in sectors that had been mowed.
Indicated clutch size (68 nests): 5 to 11 eggs; mean, 7.9 eggs. During 1969 in Stutsman County, Page and Cassel (1971) found that the average clutch size in five nests representing initial attempts was 9.6 eggs, while the average size in six nests that represented renesting attempts was 7.0 eggs.
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| Figure 24. Breeding Range of Pintail. |
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/bbofnd/species/1430.htm
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