Sometimes, the hen world makes it straightforward for us right here at Bird of the Week. Take this week’s duck—the third in our Duck Month miniseries.
This duck is named….the long-tailed duck. It’s a duck. It has a protracted tail. What extra must be stated?
OK, transferring on, this has been Bird of the We—
OH MY GOD HOLD THE FREAKING PHONE. IT’S A DUCK. AND IT’S GOT A LONG TAIL. LOOK!!!! DUCK!!!! TAIL!!!!!!!!!! TAIL! DUCK!!!!
Also the jaunty little multicolored invoice!!!!
And the snowy white feathers on high of its head prefer it’s an old-timey information anchor! Hey, is that an truly good-at-his-job model of Wolf Blitzer I’m taking a look at??? No. It’s one thing higher: a long-tailed duck.
Holy cannoli. This DUCK.
OK, I’m performed hyperventilating. Sort of. Before I’m going on, I ought to simply give a shoutout to Elias Markee-Ratner, a New York-area bird expert and photographer who steered this duck for us to function. (This is why the birding neighborhood issues a lot to Bird of the Week: as a result of I’m a hen fool who wants good individuals like Elias to steer me in the precise hen route.) A most wonderful selection!
Let’s get into some fast long-tailed duck information.
-
Their tail feathers actually are lengthy—up to six inches! They are used by the male geese to draw the feminine geese.
-
If you need to see them, you must put on some layers, as a result of long-tailed geese dwell in very chilly locations—from the north of Canada and Alaska into the Arctic, over to Greenland and throughout the north of Scandinavia and Siberia. When your tooth are chattering and also you’re seeing extra ice floes than typical, that’s when you already know you’re in Duck Town.
-
They used to have a racist identify I cannot repeat right here. Now they’re known as long-tailed geese. Crazy thought: once you’re naming an animal and your first thought is “what if I imported racism into the world of ducks,” possibly preserve brainstorming.
-
If you seen that the geese look slightly completely different in a few of the photos above, that’s as a result of they dramatically change their plumage from summer season to winter. In summer season, they’re that extra brownish shade that you would be able to see within the second image. In winter, they’re a dramatic black and white.
-
They are a harbinger of higher days to return. From the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory in Michigan: “To the Inuit of Nunavut, the arrival of the Long-tailed Duck (or in their language, aggiarjuk) heralds spring’s coming. Traditional songs exalt the event–‘When we have survived the worst and the future looks promising, the Long-tailed Ducks have now returned. As they return, they are full of joyous spirit.’”
-
They are grasp divers. In truth, no different diving duck spends as a lot time underwater as a long-tailed duck. When different geese are like “boy, it might be time to go back up to the air,” a long-tailed duck is like “are you KIDDING me I am staying down here.” According to this video, once they’re foraging for meals, they spend 3-4 occasions as a lot time underwater as they do above it, they usually can dive almost 200 ft right down to get the seafood they like to munch on. For some purpose, the video factors out that it is a longer distance than the size of issues such because the Challenger house shuttle or Big Ben. Good to know, I assume?
-
They are loud as hell—way louder than geese normally are.
Add that every one collectively, and what do you get? You get an iconic duck. Let’s watch some movies.
Here’s a cool slow-motion certainly one of all these geese diving in unison. (They additionally prefer to journey in huge teams, that’s one other truth.)
(Said slowly) Wwwwwooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Here’s a video the place you may hear their very loud name. Apparently it inspired the Cree nickname for them: Ha-hah-way. You will certainly be capable to inform why.
Here is a video of them flying round. The music is annoying however the footage will not be.
And, lastly, here’s a very soothing video of the geese simply swimming round.
Aren’t we fortunate to be in a world with long-tailed geese?
A reminder: you may try our full Bird of the Week listing right here, and get in contact along with your hen ideas at [email protected].
