Episode Information

Thirty years ago, there were six million Northern Pintails in North America. Now? Just over three million. Duck numbers plummeted in the 1980s drought. When returning rains improved breeding habitat, duck abundance rebounded. Except for Northern Pintails. Signals picked up by tracking satellites from pintails fitted with transmitters show that when migrating, the birds fly first to staging areas such as the wetlands of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. For more about Northern Pintails, visit Cornell's AllAboutBirds. For Malheur, click here. For USGS satellite tracking info, click here.