{"id":28767,"date":"2015-09-30T06:01:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T12:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=28767"},"modified":"2024-01-03T05:08:14","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T12:08:14","slug":"a-drake-northern-pintail-at-farmington-bay-on-a-december-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/09\/30\/a-drake-northern-pintail-at-farmington-bay-on-a-december-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake Northern Pintail at Farmington Bay on a January Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-119483 size-full\" title=\"Northern Pintail drake pano\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1725.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1725.jpg\" alt=\"Northern Pintail drake pano, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"900\" height=\"458\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27458%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20458%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27458%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1725-200x102.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1725-250x127.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1725-300x153.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1725-400x204.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1725-600x305.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1725-768x391.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1725-800x407.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1725.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">A Northern Pintail drake pano &#8211; Nikon D810, f9, 1\/1000, ISO 320, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been thinking about this upcoming winter wondering if we will get a normal amount of snow and of course about the birds I will see on cold mornings at Farmington Bay. I am always tickled to see and photograph Northern Pintails in their breeding plumage, especially the drakes. Of all the ducks I see I think the Northern Pintail drakes are the most elegant looking. They almost look like they are wearing a suit of some kind.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-119484 size-full\" title=\"Drake Northern Pintail in breeding plumage\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1734.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1734.jpg\" alt=\"Drake Northern Pintail in breeding plumage, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1734-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1734-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1734-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1734-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1734-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1734-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1734-800x571.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1734.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">A drake Northern Pintail in breeding plumage &#8211; Nikon D810, f9, 1\/1000, ISO 320, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>These photos were taken last January in the company of Ron and Wade who are good friends of mine. Northern Pintails don&#8217;t often allow such a close approach any time of the year but especially during hunting season so we were thrilled to photograph this one.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve already seen a few Northern Pintails flying over Farmington Bay and I hope to have more opportunities to photograph them this fall and winter. We will see.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/northern-pintail-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Northern Pintail photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been thinking about this upcoming winter wondering if we will get a normal amount of snow and of course about the birds I will see on cold mornings at Farmington Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1022,697,966,26],"tags":[4004,978,4053,4483,1129,126,4064,4062,4094,2441,9647,9648,3996,2063,4095,373],"class_list":["post-28767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-northern-pintails","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-anas-acuta","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-drake","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-ice","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-northern-pintail","tag-pintail","tag-pintails","tag-water","tag-waterfowl","tag-wetlands","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-mia-mcpherson-1725.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-7tZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18426,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/01\/03\/bison-kestrels-and-pintails\/","url_meta":{"origin":28767,"position":0},"title":"Bison, Kestrels, and Pintails","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent the yesterday morning photographing with two great friends at Antelope Island State Park and Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area and had a wonderful time.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Bison&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Bison","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/bison\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Northern Pintail drake at Farmington Bay, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-winter-drake-mia-mcpherson-1985.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-winter-drake-mia-mcpherson-1985.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-winter-drake-mia-mcpherson-1985.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-winter-drake-mia-mcpherson-1985.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":119471,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/01\/03\/drake-northern-pintail-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":28767,"position":1},"title":"Drake Northern Pintail At Bear River MBR On New Year&#8217;s Day","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I was thrilled to find and photograph a handsome drake Northern Pintail out on the auto tour loop of Bear River MBR on New Year's Day morning.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Drake Northern Pintail shaking his feathers, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-new-years-day-mia-mcpherson-1004.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-new-years-day-mia-mcpherson-1004.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-new-years-day-mia-mcpherson-1004.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/northern-pintail-drake-new-years-day-mia-mcpherson-1004.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":100485,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/03\/08\/drake-northern-pintail-lift-off-images\/","url_meta":{"origin":28767,"position":2},"title":"Drake Northern Pintail Lift Off Images","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I drove up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge yesterday morning and came home with some drake Northern Pintail lift off images that I am pleased with.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Drake Northern Pintail lifting off from water, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/northern-pintail-drake-marsh-mia-mcpherson-0058.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/northern-pintail-drake-marsh-mia-mcpherson-0058.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/northern-pintail-drake-marsh-mia-mcpherson-0058.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/northern-pintail-drake-marsh-mia-mcpherson-0058.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":26914,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/07\/26\/an-assortment-of-birds-from-bear-river-national-wildlife-refuge-this-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":28767,"position":3},"title":"An Assortment of Birds from Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge This Week","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I posted a juvenile Wilson's Phalarope and today I am posting an assortment of others birds I photographed the same day at Bear River NWR.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American White Pelicans&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American White Pelicans","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/pelicans\/white-pelicans\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sandhill Crane right after the sunrise, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sandhill-crane-adult-mia-mcpherson-7067.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sandhill-crane-adult-mia-mcpherson-7067.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sandhill-crane-adult-mia-mcpherson-7067.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sandhill-crane-adult-mia-mcpherson-7067.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":56415,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/03\/05\/photographing-tundra-swans-and-northern-pintails-in-low-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":28767,"position":4},"title":"Photographing Tundra Swans And Northern Pintails In Low Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Our Tundra Swans won't be at the refuge much longer and will soon be winging their way to their breeding grounds in the Arctic and I realize that my opportunities to photograph them before they leave are dwindling.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tundra Swans and Northern Pintails lifting off from the marsh, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/tundra-swan-low-light-northern-pintail-flight-mia-mcpherson-6724.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/tundra-swan-low-light-northern-pintail-flight-mia-mcpherson-6724.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/tundra-swan-low-light-northern-pintail-flight-mia-mcpherson-6724.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/tundra-swan-low-light-northern-pintail-flight-mia-mcpherson-6724.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":49425,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/11\/14\/winter-redhead-drakes-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":28767,"position":5},"title":"Winter Redhead Drakes in Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Redhead drakes are more colorful than the hens and I always enjoy having them in my viewfinder because of their cinnamon colored heads, their bright orange eyes and their tri-colored bills.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Close up of a drake Redhead, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8960.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8960.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8960.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/redhead-drake-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8960.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}