The pintail, or silfjun in Maltese, is a regular migrant seen mostly offshore from autumn to spring. It can be seen singly or in very large flocks and sometimes one or more visit Għadira or Simar nature reserves. Usually they stay in the reserves for a few hours or days but one has been at Għadira for at least three weeks.

Pintails feed on plant material. During the breeding season they add proteins to their diet by also eating small invertebrates such as insects and molluscs.

Pintails breed in northern parts of Europe, Asia and America. After the breeding season they move south beyond the southern edge of their breeding range.

Pintails often migrate in flocks consisting of different ducks

Many spend the winter in the Mediterranean and in North Africa but some travel as far as the equatorial regions.

They often migrate in flocks consisting of different duck species. However, one needs a good pair of binoculars or, better still, a telescope to follow their movements as most of them stay far from the coast.

Pintails are not colourful birds. During the breeding season males sport a striking combination of chocolate brown, grey, black and white. The head is brown with a thin white stripe on each side of the head that goes down along the side of the neck to reach the pure white breast. The rest of the body is a combination of grey, white and black.

The female pintail is predominantly brown but, like the males, it has a distinctive long and pointed tail which gives them a particular shape that makes them easy to identify even when seen in silhouette.

Pintails breed in open wetlands and nest on the ground, sometimes a considerable distance from the water’s edge. In some areas, the population is threatened by predators, parasites and disease as well as by hunting and agriculture, but the overall world population is still large and this species is not considered as threatened.

portelli.paul@gmail.com

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