Long Tailed Duck - An Arctic Extreme Diver

The beautiful Long-Tailed Duck is a high Arctic breeder that spends its summer feeding on crustaceans in the ocean as well as feeding in tundra and taiga ponds. The bright white face patch against the black head makes for a stunning if plain bird. In the winter the ducks lose most of the dark coloring turning to mostly white with a rich brown color. The tail feathers are pointed and extremely long, as the name of the bird suggests.

Long-Tailed Ducks, much like the King Eider, are extreme divers. But the depths that Long-Tail ducks can dive to would put a blush on the white face of the King Eider. Long-Tails are known to dive down 60 meters (200 ft) in order to hunt for clams, snails and the odd small fish. The Long-Tail ducks are the only duck that uses its wings to dive, which allows it to reach suck ridiculous depths. One bird guide puts a record setting dive at over 400 feet down!

With ice so close to shore, the Long-Tail Ducks have been easy to spot and fun to watch. When hunting, the ducks will dive below the ice for several minutes before reappearing in a completely different gap in the ice. They don't seem as fearful as other species of bird, allowing you to approach them rather close for some good photographs.

Photos taken early July when the ice hadn't fully broken up yet.

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