The Northern Pintail is the most common breeding dabbling duck in Arctic Alaska, with its corebreeding area centered on the coastal plain. In Alaska this species nests on wet sedge (Carex) orgrass meadows, sloughs, river banks, pond shores and in tidal habitats (Austin and Miller 1995).During the breeding season pintails consume mostly animal foods (aquatic invertebrates)although they switch to a largely vegetarian diet later in summer and fall (Austin and Miller1995). Northern Pintails spend their winters primarily in the southern US and Mexico (Austinand Miller 1995). The North American pintail population is down from 6 million in the early1970s to 2.6 million in 2005 (http://ak.audubon.org/species/norpin). However, aerial surveyssuggest the pintail population on the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain has not shown a significantchange since 1992, although there is substantial annual variation (J. Hupp, pers. comm.).