Northern Pintail Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: Waterfowl in general are difficult to approach and photograph in South Dakota. Given all the hunting pressure here, that's understandable. Nearly all of my best waterfowl photos were taken from some form of blind, and that's no exception for the Northern Pintail. There's a wonderful permanent blind at Dewey Gevik Nature Area, a small building set out into the wetland a little ways. When you first walk out on the short little causeway to the blind, of course all the birds scatter. But given the blind is a permanent feature, the birds are used to it, and after a while, the birds start trickling back, forgetting you are inside. As one of the most skittish duck species, it was that blind that made a photo like this possible, of a drake Northern Pintail taking flight. From April 4th, 2015.


Northern Pintail 1	Northern Pintail 2	Northern Pintail 3	Northern Pintail 4
April 14th, 2010	April 14th, 2010	April 14th, 2010	March 18th, 2011
Kingsbury County, South Dakota	Kingsbury County, South Dakota	Kingsbury County, South Dakota	LaCreek National Wildlife Refuge, South Dakota
Profile of drake Pintail in typical wetland habitat	Vertical of male Northern Pintail in marshy habitat	Profile of drake Pintail in typical wetland habitat	Male bird in flight

Northern Pintail 5	Northern Pintail 6	Northern Pintail 7	Northern Pintail 8
April 4th, 2015	April 4th, 2015	April 4th, 2015	April 4th, 2015
Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota
Drake Northern Pintail taking flight, with water droplets falling	Male Northern Pintail taking flight	Male pintail in flight, with clear blue sky background	Profile of drake swimming on open water

Northern Pintail 9	Northern Pintail 10	Northern Pintail 11	Northern Pintail 12
April 4th, 2015	April 4th, 2015	April 4th, 2015	April 23rd, 2020
Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota	Dewey Gevik Nature Area, South Dakota
Male Pintail making ripples on a pond's surface	Drake bird in typical wetland habitat, with cattails	Profile and eye contact from male pintail	Female and male pintail in a flooded field

Northern Pintail 13	Northern Pintail 14
April 23rd, 2020	July 5th, 2020
Kingsbury County, South Dakota	Hyde County, South Dakota
Female and male pintail in a flooded field	Female swimming in open water