Pintails, Gadwalls and Wigeons

     Northern pintails, gadwalls and American wigeons are three types of ducks that have a few traits in common., including being mostly vegetarians and having characteristics unique to themselves.  Drakes of each species are attractive in their own plain ways.  Females of each kind are brown, which camouflages them on nests and while raising young.  Youngsters of these species feed mostly on invertebrates for the protein, but the adults are vegetarians for the most part.  And populations of each of these duck species winter on certain ponds and wetlands here in the Middle Atlantic States.
     Pintail drakes have mostly grayish plumages, with brown heads and necks, white throats and chests and black rears.  These birds also have two long tail feathers that give them their common name.  Both males and females of this species have long, streamlined necks and bodies and are particularly swift flyers.
    Pintails gather in large groups of their own kind on shallow impoundments during winter.  Adults of this species mostly eat seeds during that harshest of seasons.
     Pintails breed around ponds throughout much of the northern hemisphere.  Early in spring, while on migration north, each female takes off in flight, followed by a small group of males.  The male that stays with the female longest in the air gets to be her mate for the season.  Losing males will try to keep up with other females. 
     Pretty little ducks in a plain way, drake gadwalls are mostly gray with pale-brown heads, a white patch on each wing and black rears under their tails.  Females also have white squares on their wings.
     Like pintails, gadwalls breed around ponds through much of the northern hemisphere.  In winter, they come together in small groups on certain ponds they use every year.  Adults consume mostly aquatic plants through the year.
     American wigeons are small, plump ducks.  Drakes are mostly light-brown with white crowns,  an iridescent green stripe through each side of the face, a white patch on each wing and a black rear.  
     Adults of this species ingest a lot of water vegetation, even harassing coots and diving, plant-eating ducks to steal the vegetation they bring to the surface to consume.  But wigeons do "tip-up" to shovel up water plants from the bottoms of shallow water.
     Wigeons also join Canada geese and other kinds of geese in eating grass and the green shoots of winter rye during winter.  One can see the large Canadas and the diminutive wigeons on lawns or in fields together feeding on that green vegetation.            
     These species of ducks are attractive in plain ways and interesting here in winter.  One can see some of these ducks and other kinds wintering in the Mid-Atlantic States by getting out to ponds and wetlands during that season and into early spring when they migrate to their respective breeding grounds.