The white-cheeked (‘Bahama’) pintail Anas bahamensis (aka ‘Bahama duck’) is everyone’s favourite dabbling duck. Or at least it ought to be. And when there are ducklings swimming with the adults, there is no emoticon yet devised that will convey the extremes of cuteness achieved.
Credits: all absolutely adorbs photos are by Tom Sheley & Charles Skinner
The white-cheeked (‘Bahama’) pintail Anas bahamensis (aka ‘Bahama duck’) is everyone’s favourite dabbling duck. Or at least it ought to be. And when there are ducklings swimming with the adults, there is no emoticon yet devised that will convey the extremes of cuteness achieved.
Credits: all absolutely adorbs photos are by Tom Sheley & Charles Skinner
The white-cheeked (‘Bahama’) pintail is everyone’s favourite dabbling duck. You can see them in large numbers at Gilpin Pond, and in slightly lesser numbers in the pond on Treasure Cay golf course. You may come across the occasional pair or singleton way out on the Marls. Wherever they may be, spring means duck ahem… erm… sex. And that means… gorgeous ducklings. Like the ones below. You can see more Abaco pintails HERE but this post showcases the delightful progeny of mama duck (not forgetting papa duck’s role, of course).
This means ‘get any closer to my darling ducky at your peril, back away now, you’ve been warned’.
A proud pair of parents. No, I can’t tell which is which – males and females are very similar. My guess is that the female is nearest.
Credits: all absolutely adorbs Anas bahamensis photos are by Tom Sheley & Charles Skinner
FREE BONUS FOR MAY! BAHAMA PINTAIL DRAWING LESSON!
I’m not going to pretend that these are particularly meritorious bird photos in any way. We were at Gilpin Point pond, always a good place to see birds and now an area that has regular parrot fly-pasts (and hang-around-squawkings). It’s the only place we have found a furtive little sora creeping guiltily around the reedy margins. It’s a reliable spot for herons and egrets of all kinds, white-cheeked (bahama) pintails by the score, black-necked stilts and lesser yellowlegs. Occasionally a northern pintail. I’ve seen belted kingfishers, bahama woodstars, cuban emeralds, american kestrels, spindalis and many more coppice birds besides. Pelicans have been seen on the rocks on the beach. Always worth a try! One day perhaps I’ll make a checklist… **
A ‘Preening of Pintail’ with a lesser yellowlegs feeding happily (if blurrily) behind them
Less than a minute earlier… PHOTOBOMB
The photobomb was a complete surprise, but I managed to snap the more elegant landing…
** As a postscript, I see that Pericles Maillis posted on eBird his very brief bird count at Gilpin pond and on the beach a couple of days after I posted this. He saw
Pics: RH
The Northern Pintail Anas acuta is a relatively rare winter resident dabbling duck on Abaco. The species has a huge range, being found throughout much of the northern hemisphere.
DABBLING DUCKS – PINTAILS UP
The ‘acuta’ in the Latin name refers to the characteristic sharp ‘pin tail’. As so often, the drake is a somewhat flashy specimen while the female is unassuming or, as some sources harshly put it, dull and drab. And while the drake makes a melodious whistle, the female simply quacks or croaks.
FLASHY MALE
DULL & DRAB FEMALE? DEBATABLE!
Northern Pintails form flocks and are happy to mix with other species. Their long necks give the edge over similarly-sized dabbling ducks such as the mallard, enabling them to reach deeper down in the water to feed.
THREATS TO THE SPECIES
On Abaco, Northern Pintails arrive in the autumn and leave as spring approaches. They are most likely to be found on ponds such as the one at Treasure Cay Golf Course, where I photographed the male; and at Gilpin Point where I spotted the lone female (at a distance). Below are both genders together for comparison (NB not taken on Abaco).
BREEDING TIME
Mating is aquatic, by the usual anatine method in which the female lowers herself in the water to indicate her agreement to the proposal whereupon the male tries to drown her. Apparently after mating, the male raises his head and whistles – whether as a signal that it’s all over or exaltation or relief has not been researched. Yet.
RELATED POSTS
BAHAMA (WHITE-CHEEKED) PINTAIL
Credits: RH x 3, Peter Mantle x 1, Tony Hepburn x 1, Woody Bracey x 1, J M Garg x 2, Birdorable
I’ve fairly very often mentioned the remarkable diversity of the bird species on Abaco. This small island has a wide variety of permanent resident species and the advantage of being on a primary migration route so that it has both winter and summer migratory visitors. Here’s an example of some of the species a visitor might reasonably expect to find during a day’s birding. This isn’t an ‘invented inventory’, easy though that would be to compile. It records a birding outing by Abaco visitor Susan Daughtrey, guided by the legendary Woody Bracey, with sightings of 53 species from A (baco Parrot) to Z (enaida Dove). Here are some of Susan’s photos of the birds she encountered. At the end is the full list of the 34 species she photographed.There’s nothing very rare – most of those shown are permanent residents (PR), breed on Abaco (B) and are commonly found (1). Hence the code* PR B 1. SR is for the 2 summer residents, I is for the introduced collared dove. The best ‘get’ is the Bahama Mockingbird (PR B 3), a bird mainly of the pine forests and not so easy to find.
ADDENDUM Susan has now sent me her complete record for a great day out in which 53 species were seen. The list shows the numbers seen for each species. I have had to reformat the list from the original to make it work in this blog. I have added links for the first bird, the Black-bellied Whistling Duck, which was recorded on Abaco for the first time in early June. Of the six seen at any one time to begin with (including at Delphi), the reported numbers dropped to 2, then 1. The latest news is an unconfirmed sighting of a single bird at Treasure Cay Golf Course.
ABACO (CUBAN) PARROT Amazona leucocephala PR B 1
ANTILLEAN NIGHTHAWK Chordeiles gundlachii SR 1
BAHAMA MOCKINGBIRD (ENDEMIC) Mimus gundlachii PR B 3
BAHAMA SWALLOW (ENDEMIC) Tachycineta cyaneoviridis PR B 1
BAHAMA PINTAIL (WHITE-CHEEKED PINTAIL) Anas bahamensis PR B 1
BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER Polioptera caerulea PR B 1
CUBAN PEWEE Contopus caribaeus PR B 1
EURASIAN COLLARED DOVE Streptopelia decaocto I PR B 1
HAIRY WOODPECKER Picoides villosus PR B 1
LEAST TERN Sternula antillarum SR B 1
LOGGERHEAD KINGBIRD Tyrannus caudifasciatus PR B 1
MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD (female) Fregata magnificens PR B 1
OLIVE-CAPPED WARBLER Setophaga pityophila PR B 1 
RED-LEGGED THRUSH Turdus plumbeus PR B 1
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD Agelaius phoeniceus PR B 1
SMOOTH-BILLED ANI Crotophaga ani PR B 1
THICK-BILLED VIREO Vireo crassirostris PR B 1
WESTERN SPINDALIS Spindalis zena PR B 1
WHITE-CROWNED PIGEON Patagioenas leucocephala PR B 1
SUSAN’S LIST OF BIRDS PHOTOGRAPHED
SUSAN’S COMPLETE LIST FOR THE DAY – 53 SPECIES
To learn about Abaco’s latest new species the Black-bellied Whistling Duck click HERE & HERE
Credits: all photos, Susan Daughtrey; *the excellent birding code was devised by ornithologist Tony White with Woody Bracey
Hunt them. Then when you have found them, shoot them. But only with a camera, obviously… These attractive dabbling ducks are far too pretty for anything more controversial than watching and enjoying. Many moons ago I posted about them HERE, but I’m a bit cannier since then, and even have my own photos now…
NOTE Within hours of posting this, I was alerted (thanks, Tony W) to the inadvisability of (a) using the word ‘hunting’ in the title; and (b) the opening 2 sentences. (a) has been changed to the neutrally vanilla ‘finding’. (b) remain but with this warning: “It is illegal to shoot white-cheeked pintail in the Bahamas“. While I don’t imagine the readers of a blog like this will already have rushed to the gun cabinet, packed up a cartridge bag, added a couple of Kaliks and headed off with extreme pintail population decrease in mind, I expect a g**gle search for ‘hunting & shooting sweet small ducks’ could indeed provoke the odd (to very odd) person to assume it is open season for pintails. It isn’t. It never is.
The white-cheeked pintail Anas Bahamensis is also known as the Bahama Pintail. It is a gregarious species, often found in large numbers on lakes and ponds. An excellent place to see them on Abaco is at the pond by Hole 11 at Treasure Cay golf course. Don’t all rush at once – and if you do follow up the hint, check in at the Clubhouse to get permission – there may be a competition in progress… You’ll see many other waterbird species there, and I will do a follow-up post about them. Do mind your head – if someone yells ‘fore’ they will probably not be counting duck species.
The male and female of the species are very similar. However, in the image below there’s one bird that stands out from the others… and I don’t mean the American Coot. Near the bottom right is a LEUCISTIC variant of the Bahama Duck, a genetic condition similar to albinism.
Here is a close-up of the same duck on dry land. These variants are known as Silver Bahama Pintails. They are worth more than the standard version. You can see some good comparative pictures and find out more at MALLARD LANE FARMS
Here is a more extreme wiki-example of a silver bahama pintail
Another excellent place for pintails is in the Crossing Rocks area of South Abaco. Strictly, it is on private land. And legally too, for that matter. So I won’t pinpoint these pintails publicly. There is a wonderful variety of waterbird life there. I have seen great egrets, little blue herons, yellow-crowned night herons, belted kingfishers and elegant BLACK-NECKED STILTS there, besides several duck species. I have also seen a sora there (twice), a small, furtive rail that skulks in the reeds and foliage at the edge of the water, profoundly hoping that you won’t notice it… If you are birding on Abaco from Delphi, ask Peter or Sandy for the location. Or else contact me.
“On Reflection…”
Gareth Reid, master chef of the Delphi Club and Kasia of ABACO BEACHCOMBING fame have put together some excellent material about the bird-life to be found on Treasure Cay golf course. I’ve never been there myself, but I already knew from a recent comment from Dr Elwood Bracey of TC that the birdlife on the golf course is very varied and exciting.
Gareth writes: I am a keen golfer and my girlfriend loves nature and wildlife so sometimes to cover both bases we spend our day off at Treasure Cay Golf Club. Whilst I play, Kasia twitches!
Treasure Cay golf course is 20 odd miles north of Marsh Harbour a challenging little track with a lovely mixture of short Par 4s interesting par 5s and a couple of really testing Par 3s. It was designed by Dick Wilson of Doral fame and has matured into today’s layout of tight fairways framed by dense island vegetation.
Birdlife on the course is supported by the three lakes, beside the fourth and fifteenth greens and to the right of the eleventh fairway. Species include North American Coots, Moorhens, Canada Geese, Snow Geese, Mallard Ducks, White Cheeked Pintails, Anis, Northern Mocking Birds, Ibis and Palm Warblers. We have also spotted a Belted Kingfisher and an Osprey both enjoying a light lunch of fresh fish.
So next time you come visit Abaco why not take the trip to Treasure Cay with a bag full of sticks a few balls and tees, hopes of birdies and dreams of eagles and if your swing lets you down at least you got those cute coots. The Delphi Club can provide packed lunches, or you can eat at TC – try Coco Bar (fish and chips, burgers etc) or Treasure Sands (upmarket bar restaurant with pool)
BAHAMA (WHITE-CHEEKED) PINTAILS AT TC GC & OTHER SPECIES
(The slideshow was meant to showcase just Pintails but apparently has to include all the other images)
CANADA GOOSE
GREAT BLUE HERON
GREEN HERON
WHITE IBIS 
SMOOTH-BILLED ANI
NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD
PALM WARBLER 
KASIA PERFECTS HER DRIVING AT TC GC
ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO 
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