White-Cheeked Pintail Duck

WHITE-CHEEKED PINTAIL

Anas bahamensis

• Bahama Pintail, Bahama Duck, Bahama Teal, Summer duck, 
• White Jaws, White Cheeked Pintail, White Faced Duck.
• I was painting at the Yacht Club when I first saw one of these pretty birds paddling near the mangroves. It is a species of dabbling duck, described by Linnaeus in 1758, and is known to disappear from May to August when it moults its wing feathers and prefers not to be seen.
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• In the winter breeding season White-cheeked Pintails usually form a monogamous mating pair and stay together during the season. Some of the males are polygamous, however, and being excellent underwater swimmers, sneak up to any unsuspecting female and try to mate with her before being driven off by her indignant partner.

• A few male White-Cheeked Pintails manage to pair with two females for the breeding season instead of the usual one and become successful bigamists, known as “super males”; very aggressive individuals that are capable of guarding two mates.

White-Cheeked Pintails eat both animals, insects and plants. They feed tipped up or “dabbling” in shallow water, and on land eat grass and other seeds.

Social courtship is most frequent and intense during winter and early spring, when a group of males surround a few females and start a dramatic series of displays described as Burps and Down-ups, Head Pumping, Belly Preening, Preening Behind the Wing and Mutual Drinking.  

Males may occasionally stay close to their mate, but it is the females who look after their chicks. They scrape out their nest on the ground or among mangrove roots and line it with dead leaves and down or grass, concealing it with vegetation. The buff colored eggs can be any number between five and fifteen.

includes off white mat 16" x 18" and certificate of authenticity