All species › Waterfowl › Ducks, geese and swans › Long-Tailed Duck
Long-Tailed Duck | Clangula hyemalis
IJseend | Havelda
The Long-tailed Duck is a small, compact sea duck of the Arctic tundra that spends the winter on the open sea. Within the region it is an extremely rare vagrant, usually turning up as a single bird on a lagoon or a reservoir.
Voice
The male has a musical, yodelling call, a-a-ow-lee, especially in display at the end of winter; the female quacks softly. Vagrants in the region are usually silent.
Recording: Petter Westberg — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
39–47 cm, the male 10–15 cm longer with its long, thin central tail feathers. A small, round-headed duck with a short bill. The winter male is largely white with a large blackish-brown cheek patch, a black breast, dark back and wings, and a pink band on the short bill. Females and juveniles are brown and white, with a white head showing a dark crown and dark cheek patch, a brown breast and a white belly; they lack the long tail. In flight the wings are wholly dark without a speculum, with a white belly.
Confusion species
A female Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra) also has a pale cheek and dark cap, but is larger and uniformly dark brown, including the belly. A female Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) has a dark brown head with a white collar and grey flanks, and white wing panels in flight. At a distance a diving bird can recall a winter Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus), but that has a long neck and a long pointed bill.
Habitat
Winters on the open sea over shallow sandbanks and mussel beds, where it dives to great depths for molluscs and crustaceans. Vagrants in the region have been seen in coastal lagoons, saltpans, settling pools and inland reservoirs.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
A very rare vagrant. In Morocco first recorded in June 2014 at the lagoons near Oualidia, the first record for mainland Africa, followed by one at Essaouira in December 2015 and January 2016. In Israel five records between 1979 and 1986, all at Eilat, and then not again until a female in April 2026 at Kibbutz HaGoshrim in the Hula Valley. In Kuwait in November 2012 and in January 2023 at Jahra Pools Reserve. Beyond the region it breeds on the Arctic tundra right around the pole, wintering at sea around the Baltic, the North Sea, the Norwegian coast, the North Pacific and the Great Lakes.
How and when to look
A vagrant sometimes stays for weeks at the same spot. In winter search among other diving ducks on lagoons and reservoirs for a small, pied duck that stays under water for a long time and swims underwater with half-opened wings.
Conservation status
Vulnerable. The world population has declined steeply, above all through the large fall in the Baltic, the main wintering area. Causes include bycatch in gill nets, oil pollution at sea, hunting and changes in food supply.
Scientific name
Clangula hyemalis | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Anas hyemalis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Clangula was introduced in 1819 by Leach. Clangula is a Latin diminutive of clangere 'to resound', after the far-carrying call. hyemalis is Latin for 'of the winter'. The specimen the first description was based on came from northern Sweden.