BirdNote; The Music of Long-tailed Ducks

BirdNote®

The Music of Long-tailed Ducks

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote!

[Water lapping] [Long-tailed Ducks calling several times]

It’s one of those clear, quiet winter mornings on the bay. [Water lapping] The silence is broken by a series of loud, insistent calls.

[Long-tailed Ducks calling.]

What’s the source of this wild refrain? There, a hundred yards out where the water deepens, is a small cluster of seaducks, dressed mostly in white. They’re Long-tailed Ducks, back for the winter from nesting far to the north.

[Long-tailed Ducks calling several times]

Long-tailed Ducks are named for the male’s plumage: long, slender tail-plumes extend almost a foot behind his body. And he holds his rapier tail cocked at a jaunty angle.

Long-tailed Ducks are far more vocal than most ducks, a feature that has earned them a host of charming nicknames. [Long-tailed Duck calling] The name that probably comes closest to capturing the sound of the male’s call is from the Cree language – “Ha-hah-way.”

[Long-tailed Duck calling]

This winter, along either coast or on the Great Lakes, listen – for Long-tailed Ducks. [Long-tailed Duck calling] By listening, you’ll have an advantage. Because they can be hard to spot! When they’re feeding, Long-tailed Ducks spend a lot of time under water – and they can dive as deep as two hundred feet!

Even so, you can get a good look at a Long-tailed Duck on our website, BirdNote.org. I’m Michael Stein.

[Long-tailed Duck calling]

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Call of the Long-tailed Duck provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by G. Vyn.

Ambient recorded by Kessler Productions.

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Chris Peterson

© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org December 2016 Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# 120106LTDUKPLU LTDU-01c