The number of arrivals is greatest through October to December. Breeding habitat - The northern pintail's breeding habitat varies greatly throughout its geographic range. In general, however, the northern pintail typically inhabit open country with low vegetation and many scattered small shallow bodies of water. Northern pintails are surface feeders. They generally feed in shallow waters of marshes, ponds, and wet meadows or grain fields.
Northern pintails eat the grains of wheat, barley, corn, rice, and oats.
Northern pintails nest early and in more open sites than other species of ducks and therefore may suffer greater nest loss from predation. Northern pintail nests are especially vulnerable to farming operations because pintails nest in stubble fields. A study of northern pintails nesting on the Portage Plains, Manitoba, showed that farming operations directly destroyed 57 percent of all northern pintail nests in 1956 and 41 percent of all nests in 1957.