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Characteristics and Range Formerly known as Oldsquaw, the Long-tailed Duck is a highly vocal, smallish sea duck with a striking plumage. Males in breeding season are largely dark brown, with whitish cheeks and underparts. Females are not as boldly marked and they lack the long central tail feathers of the males. In winter both sexes are more extensively white. Unlike other duck species, the Long-tailed Duck undergœs three partial molts each year. Its circumpolar breeding range extends to 80°N and south to Hudson Bay and Labrador, where it nests on tundra and taiga (Robertson and Savard 2002). Although wintering takes place mainly along both the northern Atlantic and Pacific coasts and on the Great Lakes, some winter on Hudson Bay at the Belcher Islands (Gilchrist and Robertson 2000) and there are numerous records of migrants or wintering birds scattered throughout the North American continent.

Distribution, Abundance, and Habitat Long-tailed Ducks were widespread in the Arctic Plains & Mountains, where almost 100% of squares were occupied. In the Taiga Shield & Hudson Plains region, occupancy was about 25%, mostly in the Wapusk National Park area, near Churchill, and at some of the larger lakes immediately south of the Nunavut land border. The observed distribution was very similar to that shown in The Birds of Manitoba. Probability of observation showed a similar pattern. This species was the fourth most common duck, and the most common diving duck, throughout the Hudson Bay Lowlands. An estimated 400 pairs bred in a 4,000-ha study area east of the Churchill airport in the 1970s (Alison 1975). Nests are often located on small islands in tundra ponds and lakes, sometimes in close proximity to each other, or with Common Eiders or Arctic Terns, and usually close to water (Jehl 2004). The breeding-season diet consists mainly of small aquatic invertebrates, typically whatever species are locally abundant.

Trends, Conservation, and Recommendations The Long-tailed Duck formerly suffered significant declines, in part from over-hunting but especially from commercial fishing by-catch, which in some of the Great Lakes ranged from 15,000 to 100,000 mortalities annually (Ellarson 1956, Robertson and Savard 2002). Nonetheless, the North American population appears to have stabilized since the 1990s and this species remains the most abundant Arctic sea duck on this continent. The current global listing of Vulnerable is based primarily on steep declines in the Baltic Sea wintering population (Birdlife International 2018a). The species is not commonly harvested by recreational hunters, but it is believed to be an important species in the Aboriginal subsistence harvest (Canadian Wildlife Service Waterfowl Committee 2015). Climate change may affect both breeding and wintering populations.

Rudolf Koes

Recommended citation: Koes, R. F. 2018. Long-tailed Duck in Artuso, C., A. R. Couturier, K. D. De Smet, R. F. Koes, D. Lepage, J. McCracken, R. D. Mooi, and P. Taylor (eds.). The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Manitoba, 2010-2014. Bird Studies Canada. Winnipeg, Manitoba http://www.birdatlas.mb.ca/accounts/speciesaccount.jsp?sp=LTDU&lang=en [13 Oct 2024]