Canary of the Prairie
It isn't just the catchy rhyme that has some biologists referring to Northern Pintails as the "canary of the prairie." Many researchers observe that like canaries in a coal mine, perhaps the decline of the dabbling duck is an early warning to a more extensive problem—one that encompasses the health of the entire prairie ecosystem.

Pintails range over more of the earth than any other waterfowl. Like other dabbling ducks, they have weathered the cyclical prairie droughts and rebounded in years of wet conditions. After the drought of the 1980s, however, pintails didn't fair as well as their fellow dabbling duck populations. By the early 1990s, continental pintail populations had dropped to less than a quarter of the 9 million-plus peak record hit in 1955. In 2002, pintail numbers hit a record low of 1.8 million birds. Although the population has increased slightly, pintail numbers are 36 percent below the pintail goal of 5.6 million, set by the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP).

Unlike other dabbling ducks, pintails have unique nesting characteristics. They prefer to nest away from water in sparse cover. Researchers have found many pintail nests in the crop stubble that is typical of summerfallow fields, or those that are rested in alternate years. Because of their choice of nesting areas, pintails are more sensitive to land-use practices than any other waterfowl species.

Biologists examined the three primary pintail breeding areas (Prairie Canada, Prairie U.S. and Alaska and northern Canada) and found that the greatest decline in the pintail population has been occurring among birds that breed in Prairie Canada, and specifically since the 1970s. What researchers studying pintail habitat and land use data in Prairie Canada have found is an increase in cropland.

Since the 1970s when about half of the land was summer fallowed, or left to rest in alternate years, agricultural practices have changed so that nearly 13 million acres of Prairie Canada summer fallow have been converted to annual cropping. While good for soil conservation and the farm economy, these changes have proven challenging to pintails that readily nest in the crop stubble of fallow fields.

In fields where at one time pintails could successfully hatch a nest before farm machinery tilled the stubble, pintails now find either the machinery plows under their nesting attempts, or stubble-covered land is nonexistent. Combine with the loss in habitat the fact that only about 1 in 10 pintail nests hatch successfully, and pintails usually don't try to build more than two nests during the spring breeding season, and there exist great challenges to the mating ducks.

Organizations Accept Challenge
Recently, Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) and Ducks Unlimited, Inc. (DUI), took the proactive step of developing a species-specific program, the Pintail Initiative, to help reverse the decline. Armed with the objective of increasing continental populations of pintails, the organizations are in search of "workable" agricultural solutions that impact large acreages.

Managers are looking to conserve existing uncropped habitat and partner with landowners in the Canadian Prairie to encourage land-use practices on annually cropped land that benefit both landowner and pintails. Two Canadian studies have shown that conversion of cropland to perennial forages such as hay and the use of fall-seeded crops as pintail-friendly cropping alternatives increases pintail nesting success tenfold.

DUC also has employed Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to determine where the highest densities of pintails nest so that they may successfully target habitat and make the most of conservation dollars. The organization estimates the Canadian Prairie portion of the initiative will cost $50 million over the next 25 years.

But increasing pintail populations will require more diligence than just that focused on summer breeding areas. Fortunately, biologists have already focused conservation efforts on traditional pintail wintering areas, including California's Central Valley.

The California Waterfowl Association's Pintail Program seeks to restore pintail populations to levels recorded before the drought of the 1980s. The association is sponsoring projects that aim to enhance pintail breeding populations in short grass prairies, reduce the impacts of botulism and enhance habitat for wintering pintail populations in California.