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Long-tailed Duck : Long-tailed Duck Aarrangyar(aq) Listening to this noisy sea duck during its migration north is probably one of the most unique listening experiences I’ve ever had in the YK Delta. The Hooper Bay Yupik name, Aarrangyar, describes the sound perfectly, although the names given the bird by Lower Yukon (Allgiaraq) and Nunavak Island speakers (aarraangiiq) also give you a pretty good idea of their call. Their old English name Oldsquaw, now regarded as politically incorrect, refers to this talkative behavior, although it is the male that actually makes most of the noise. Scientists, too, must have been impressed when they first gave the bird its scientific name, Clangula hyemalis, since it translates loosely as “noisy winter duck.” Aarrangyar is unique for other reasons. Unlike most ducks, which molt twice annually, this one has four different plumages each year. These are achieved in a series of overlapping partial molts, making it seem as though the plumage change is continuous, especially from April to October. What’s more, the male wears its “breeding” plumage only during the winter months. It gets its “non-breeding” plumages in the spring and wears them through the nesting season all the way to October. This is different from most other ducks that molt to their non-breeding plumage (“eclipse plumage”) only for a short period beginning in early summer, followed by a molt in autumn back to bright breeding plumage. Winter is the best time for any duck to have its breeding plumage, since it is then that they actively court and form pair bonds that lead to immediate nesting in the spring. Nesting for the Long-tailed duck doesn’t actually begin until the third summer, or when the bird is two years old. The courtship displays of the male, however, begin during the previous winter, so that by early spring the pair bonds are already formed and the two birds can migrate north together. I was amazed to learn of the number of courtship displays of the male, which are so necessary in the attraction of his mate. I have watched some of them, but never dreamed there were so many more. Ornithologist, Robert Alison, distinguished a dozen distinct performances by courting males, including: shaking its head from side to side, tossing its head back with bill pointed up while calling, raising its long tail high in the air, porpoising, wing-flapping, body-shaking, bill-dipping, and others. Unique calls accompany some of these. Females have their own displays: chin-lifting, soliciting, and hunching. The female builds her nest in a hidden depression close to water out of plant material. She adds large amounts of her own down to the nest after she lays her eggs and begins incubation. She lays 6-8 olive-buff to olive-gray eggs, which she incubates herself for almost 4 weeks. Shortly after they hatch, the young leave the nest and head for water. Although they already know how to feed themselves, they are tended by their mother who may facilitate their feeding by dislodging food to the surface after diving. Their food is the same as their mother’s: small crustaceans, insects and their larvae, pond weeds, grasses, and fish eggs, although as they grow larger they will include small mollusks and fish. Long-tails forage by diving and swimming underwater, with their wings partly open but propelled mainly by their feet. Most feeding is within 30 feet of the surface, but they are able to dive as deep as 200 feet, making them one of the deepest diving ducks in the world. Also, of all diving ducks, Aarrangyar spends the most time underwater relative to time on the surface. When foraging it is submerged 3-4 times as much as it is on top of the water. At between 35-40 days, young Long-tailed ducks are ready for flight and spend until late in fall fattening up for their migration south. They also tend to migrate north early in spring, and travel in flocks of hundreds of birds. Most migrate around coastlines rather than flying overland, and immense numbers fly north through the Bering Strait in spring. Most of those fly close to Hooper Bay and Scammon Bay, so if you’re out in a boat at that time of year, look for these truly awesome birds. Something tells me, though, their diet may give them a rather “off taste,” so they probably aren’t worth trying to hunt unless you’re very hungry. I hate to burden you with additional names, but these are a few more common ones of this duck: Calloo; cockawee; coween; hound; old Billy; old granny; old injun; old molly; old wife; quandy; scoldenore; scolder; south-southerly; long-tail; squeaking duck; swallow-tailed duck; uncle Huldy; John Connolly; and winter duck. » List of Yupik Birds

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