Long-tailed Duck

The Long-tailed Duck is a medium-sized sea duck of the high Arctic, celebrated for its unique, complex plumage cycle and elegant silhouette. Unlike most ducks that molt twice a year, the Long-tailed Duck undergoes three distinct molts, resulting in a constantly shifting mosaic of white, black, and brown throughout the seasons. Historically known in North America as the "oldsquaw" (a name changed in 2000 to align with international English naming conventions and remove a culturally insensitive term), this duck is highly gregarious and can form monumental wintering flocks of tens of thousands on large bodies of water. The species is also legendary among birders for its astonishing diving ability and its resonant, musical calls that can carry for miles across cold waters.

Identifying the Long-tailed Duck is a treat due to its distinct shapes and patterns, though the sheer variety of its plumage transitions can challenge beginners.

Male Identification

• Winter Plumage: Extremely striking. Mostly white head and neck with a distinct dark cheek patch. The breast is dark brown-black, contrastingly sharply with white flanks. The back is black with long, elegant, grey scapular feathers draped over its sides. The most defining feature is a pair of extremely long, thin, black central tail feathers.
• Summer Plumage: Mostly dark brown-black overall, with a prominent white patch surrounding the eye and white flanks. The long tail feathers remain.
• Bill: Black with a prominent bright pink band near the tip.

Female Identification

• Year-round: Lacks the long tail streamers. The head is round and mostly white, with a dark crown and a dark patch on the side of the cheek.
• Winter: Dominated by white on the head and neck, with a dark cap and cheek. The breast is light greyish-brown.
• Summer: Darker overall, with more brown-grey on the head, neck, and chest.

In Flight

Regardless of season, look for a duck with completely dark wings (no white wing patches or speculum) and a white belly. Their flight is rapid, low to the water, characterized by constant, erratic twisting and tilting from side to side.

Breeding Range

During the summer nesting season, Long-tailed Ducks disperse across the circumpolar Arctic, inhabiting tundra pools, small lakes, wet deltas, and slow-moving rivers in northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia, Greenland, and northern Europe.

Wintering Range

In late autumn, they migrate south to winter in open marine waters. They are common along both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America and Eurasia. Significant populations also winter in deep, ice-free freshwater systems, most notably the Great Lakes in North America and the Baltic Sea in Europe.

Migration

They are medium to long-distance migrants, flying in large, loose flocks close to the surface of the water or high overland to reach their wintering quarters.

Diving and Feeding

Long-tailed Ducks are among the deepest-diving ducks in the world. They regularly dive to depths of 30 feet (9 meters) and have been recorded caught in fishing nets as deep as 200 feet (60 meters). Unlike many other diving ducks, they swim underwater using their wings as well as their feet for propulsion, pursuing a diet rich in blue mussels, clams, amphipods, crabs, and occasional small fish or aquatic insect larvae.

Voice

This is one of the most vocal ducks in existence. Males produce a loud, carrying, musical yodel often transcribed as "ow-ow-owlee" or "ah-ah-on-ulik." The sound is a classic element of cold winter shorelines and Arctic tundra, often compared to the sound of distant bagpipes or baying hounds.

Nesting and Breeding

Monogamous pairs form in the winter or during spring migration. The female selects a well-concealed site on the ground near tundra water, often hidden by scrubby vegetation or rocks. She scrapes a shallow bowl and lines it thickly with down plucked from her breast. A typical clutch size is 6 to 9 buff-olive eggs, incubated solely by the female for about 24 to 29 days.