Long-tailed duck

Clangula hyemalis

Group: Waterfowl
Size class: Small (under 10 kg)
Family: Anatidae

Range

North America
Europe
Arctic

Habitat

Coast

Range

Countries it is found in

41 countries

Åland Islands
Albania
Austria
Bermuda
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Canada
Czechia
Denmark
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Greenland
Iceland
Ireland
Isle of Man
Italy
Japan
Kazakhstan
Latvia
Lithuania
Moldova

Range from:Wikipedia country bird lists, GBIF occurrence records — read 2026-08-05

Chapter 01

Overview

The long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis) is a medium-sized sea duck that breeds on Arctic tundra and taiga and winters along the northern coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific. It is the only member of its genus; Clangula is a diminutive of the Latin for 'to resound', and hyemalis means 'of winter'. The Baltic Sea is its most important wintering area, with about 4.5 million birds. Numbers wintering there have fallen markedly, partly through drowning in gillnets, and the IUCN lists the species as vulnerable.

Chapter 02

Identification

Adults have white underparts, but the rest of the plumage passes through a complex moult. The drake has a long pointed tail of 10 to 15 cm and a dark grey bill crossed by a pink band. In winter he shows a dark cheek patch on a mostly white head and neck; in summer the head, neck and back are dark with a white cheek patch. The female has a brown back and a short pointed tail, with a white head and dark crown in winter. The drake is vocal, with a musical yodelling call.

Chapter 03

Behaviour

A gregarious bird, forming large flocks in winter and on migration. It dives for molluscs, crustaceans and some small fish, using its wings underwater, and can reach depths of 60 m — far deeper than most ducks. It breeds by tundra pools and marshes, on sea coasts and on large mountain lakes; fishless lakes matter, since they hold the invertebrates adults and young feed on. The nest is on the ground near water, lined with down, and holds six to nine pale grey to olive eggs.

Chapter 04

Hunting

The long-tailed duck is still hunted across much of its range. Along the Swedish east coast it was once an important winter food for coastal households: nets were strung on long poles across narrow sounds to catch the birds in flight, a method Olaus Magnus described in 1555, and birds were also shot or clubbed in open leads in the ice. Today the alfågel has no general open season in Sweden's hunting ordinance, and its wintering population is red-listed there as endangered.

On the table

Meat & cooking

Table grade 1 of 51/5

Sold as meat in a legal market
Has a named traditional dish
Published way to handle and cook it
Eaten in more than one country
No known health advisory

Sources

Sources: Long-tailed duck — Wikipedia, Alfågel — Wikipedia (svenska), Jaktförordning (1987:905) — Sveriges riksdag — read 2026-10-29

Spatula clypeata

Same subfamily (Anatinae)

North AmericaEuropeAsia