Bird of the Month - December 2003
Long-tailed Duck
Clangula hyemalis
Cold fingers, tepid coffee, and an overcast expanse of water dotted with birds frame circumstances recalling many of the Long-tailed Ducks seen in our Redwood Region. These are strange and beautiful ducks, with the looks and charisma to hold one’s eye for long moments—were it not for their seeming habit of spending more time beneath the surface than above.
Long-tailed Ducks are among the most abundant Arctic-nesting diving ducks. Tundra pools around the Northern Hemisphere--some nearly as far north as there is land--provide broods of ducklings with shelter and sustenance during the fleet weeks of the Arctic summer. Autumn finds them moving southward and toward ocean coasts. Concentrations involving tens or even hundreds of thousands gather over shoals of the Maritime Provinces and the northern Atlantic seaboard.
A different picture develops each winter along the Pacific Coast. Numerous in coastal Alaska, British Columbia, and into the San Juan Islands and northern Puget Sound, Long-tailed Ducks are far less common to the south. Along the coast of Oregon and California this species is very much an exception rather than the rule in winter waterbird flocks. Nevertheless, a few Long-tailed Ducks show up each winter, most commonly in the lee of headlands, about jetties and breakwaters, in tidal channels, and shortly inside river mouths. Owing to its pied plumage, small size and fondness for lengthy dives, this is also a classic ‘stealth’ rarity among the big flocks of Buffleheads and Ruddy Ducks on sewage ponds—check those common birds twice! Birders willing to look carefully at each bird in large mixed assemblages of loons, grebes, scoters, goldeneyes and the like will eventually be rewarded for their patience. Once in awhile, several Long-tailed Ducks may show up together and remain at one site for an extended time. A remarkable flock of a dozen spent the winter inside the entrance to Coos Bay five years ago, attracting many admirers.
This species is unique among our ducks in that each sex wears two different-looking definitive plumages during the year. No two Long-tailed Ducks seen in sequence look quite alike. Look for a little ghostly-looking duck with dark upperparts, a dappled dark-and-white head, snub bill, and pointed tail. Adult males in full feather have streaming tails and scapulars and are a total show-stopper. Long-tailed Ducks fly rapidly low across the water, often swerving, showing wings that are dark both above and below.
As all but the most recent beginners are aware, the creature now called Long-tailed Duck here in North America was formerly known as Oldsquaw. Most sources state that the name ‘Oldsquaw’ is based on the gabbling cries of the birds, suggesting ... old squaws. It seems a pity that such an evocative label be scrapped for the sake of conforming with the long-established British name. However, the change serves political correctness, and anyway most of us are used to it by now.