plural pintail or pintails
: a bird having elongated central tail feathers
especially
: a slender long-necked duck (Anas acuta) of the northern hemisphere with the breeding male having a brown head, a white breast with a white line continuing up the side of the neck, chiefly gray upperparts, and a long black tail and with the female having chiefly mottled brown plumage
Examples of pintail in a Sentence
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Research bears this out, including one extensive band recovery analysis that showed mallard and pintails were shifting north by 100 to several hundred kilometers (about 62 miles to 120-plus miles) in December and January.
—
Natalie Krebs, Outdoor Life, 14 Jan. 2026
Chuck Black, a Stillwater, Minn., native and University of North Dakota graduate, won the 2023 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest with a painting of a northern pintail.
—Forum News Service, Twin Cities, 29 Sep. 2025
Under the new Fish and Wildlife interim pintail harvest strategy, hunters in all four flyways are expected to have a three-pintail daily bag limit option for next year's 2026–'27 season based on this year's breeding population results.
—Arkansas Online, 16 Sep. 2025
James Gentz has seen birds aplenty on his East Texas rice-and-crawfish farm: snow geese and pintails, spoonbills and teal.
—The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 7 Aug. 2025
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Natalie Krebs, Outdoor Life, 14 Jan. 2026
Chuck Black, a Stillwater, Minn., native and University of North Dakota graduate, won the 2023 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest with a painting of a northern pintail.
—Forum News Service, Twin Cities, 29 Sep. 2025
Under the new Fish and Wildlife interim pintail harvest strategy, hunters in all four flyways are expected to have a three-pintail daily bag limit option for next year's 2026–'27 season based on this year's breeding population results.
—Arkansas Online, 16 Sep. 2025
James Gentz has seen birds aplenty on his East Texas rice-and-crawfish farm: snow geese and pintails, spoonbills and teal.
—The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 7 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pintail
Cite this Entry
“Pintail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pintail. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
pintail
noun
pin·tail
ˈpin-ˌtāl 
plural pintail or pintails
: a bird (as a duck or grouse) with long central tail feathers
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