Long-tailed Duck

Clangula hyemalis

Order ANSERIFORMES - Family ANATIDAE - Subfamily Anatinae

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

Formerly known as Oldsquaw, the Long-tailed Duck breeds in the Arctic and winters along both coasts of North America. It is distinctive among ducks in plumage, molt sequences, foraging behavior, and vocalizations.

Cool Facts

• The Long-tailed Duck is one of the deepest diving ducks, and can dive as deep as 60 meters (200 feet) to forage.
• Of all diving ducks, the Long-tailed Duck spends the most time under water relative to time on the surface. When it is foraging it is submerged three to four times as much as it is on top of the water.

• Unlike most ducks, which molt twice per year, the Long-tailed Duck has three distinct plumages each year, achieved in a complex series of overlapping partial molts. The Definitive Basic Plumage is never worn in its entirety, as portions of Alternate are retained through the summer and elements of the Supplemental are acquired before all of Basic Plumage is obtained. Therefore change in plumage seems continuous from April to October.

• Unlike other waterfowl, the Long-tailed Duck wears its "breeding" or Alternate Plumage only in the winter. It gets its "nonbreeding" or Basic Plumage in the spring and wears it for the breeding season. Most other ducks wear the nonbreeding plumage only for a short period in the late summer.

Description

• Size: 38-58 cm (15-23 in)
• Wingspan: 72 cm (28 in)
• Weight: 500-1100 g (17.65-38.83 ounces)

• Medium-sized diving duck.
• Mostly black-and-white plumage, varying throughout year.
• Black wings in all plumages.
• Male has long central tail feathers and often a pink band near tip of black bill.

• Legs and feet light bluish gray along joints, with dark gray webs.

Sex Differences

Male has very long black central tail feathers and is cleanly marked black-and-white. Female has short tail and is patterned in smudgy black, white, and brown. Male's bill often has a pink band near the tip; female's bill is uniformly dark gray.

Male

Summer plumage: Black head, chest, and wings. Gray face patch surrounding eyes. Upper back feathers long, and buffy with black centers. Central tail feathers very long.
Winter plumage: White head and neck. Gray patch around the eyes. Large black spot extending from cheek down sides of neck. Black band across lower neck and breast. Back black. Long, gray upper back feathers. Long, black central tail feathers. Eyes dull yellow-brown.

Female

Summer plumage: Mostly dark head and neck, with white around eyes, extending in a thin line toward the ear. Back and breast are variably brown or gray. Eyes brown.
Winter plumage: White head and neck. Round dark brown cheek patch. White belly. Variably brownish gray crown, breast, and back.

Immature

Juvenile has dark brown head, white or pale brownish gray face, white belly, and brownish gray upperparts, breast, and upper belly. Immature resembles adult of same sex.

Similar Species

• Northern Pintail has long tail, but has a brown head, a white neck stripe, and a long neck.
• Female Harlequin Duck similar to female Long-tailed Duck, but has brown flanks and a small round white spot on the ear.
• Female Steller's Eider has white trailing edges on the inner wing and white wing linings.

Sound

Male makes loud, nasal, seemingly incessant call, "ow-owooolee." Call a soft "gut-gut" call when feeding, or barks when alarmed.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds in northern Alaska and Canada, and polar and subpolar regions across the Northern Hemisphere.

Winter Range

Winters on both coasts of North America, as far southward as California and Cape Hatteras, and on all five Great Lakes. Old World populations also winter along sea coasts, including about a million in the Baltic Sea.

Habitat

Breeds in ponds, streams, and other arctic wetlands. Winters on open ocean or on large freshwater lakes.

Food

Mostly aquatic invertebrates, including insects and crustaceans. Also some bivalves, fish, fish eggs, and plant matter.

Behavior

Foraging

Dives for prey on or near bottom.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Shallow scrape in the ground, lined with willow and birch leaves and then with down. Placed at the water's edge, often on islands or peninsulas, close to other Long-tailed Duck nests.

Egg Description

Pale gray to olive.

Clutch Size

5-10 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Downy and eyes open. Leave nest soon after they dry. Feed themselves immediately.

Conservation Status

Populations appear to be declining, but numbers difficult to census because of offshore wintering areas. Not widely hunted. Entanglement in fishing nets killed tens of thousands of Long-tailed Ducks in the 1950s, especially in the Great Lakes; recent statistics and trends on by-catch of Long-tailed Duck have not been compiled.

Other Names

Harelde kakawi (French)

Sources used to construct this page:

Robertson, G. J., and J-P. L. Savard. 2002. Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis). In The Birds of North America, No. 651 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.