Long-tailed Duck: Scarce Visitor to Arran
Reports
On Wednesday 12 February 2025 there was a report of a pair of Long-tailed Duck just off Pirnmill giving good views in the late afternoon. Interestingly the last Arran report of this sea duck was also off Pirnmill almost exactly a year ago on 11 February 2024. Last year it was a single bird, a female. In the last thirty-five years there have only been twenty-three reports of Long-tailed Duck round Arran’s coast. Almost all of these have been in the winter.
The Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis) or to give it its native North American name, coween, is a stunning looking medium-sized sea duck whose features are captured in Dennis Morrison’s excellent photographs. It is a circumpolar species breeding in the tundra and taiga regions of the Arctic across northern Eurasia and North America. It winters almost exclusively at sea off the coast in the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, including western Europe.
Long-tailed Duck is a winter visitor to UK coastal waters. The majority of those wintering in the UK do so in the north. BirdTrack data indicates that Long-tailed Duck begin arriving in UK waters during October and reach their peak in mid-November. It is estimated that around 14,000 birds spend the winter here.
In Scotland, Long-tailed Duck is localised in the winter with a restricted distribution and site, loyalty suggesting very specific habitat requirements. It winters principally in the Moray Firth. There are also major concentrations round the coasts of Shetland and Orkney with lesser numbers in the Firth of Forth. Elsewhere, including the Firth of Clyde, there are only small numbers. While there is no evidence of any change in the overall distribution of wintering Long-tailed Duck, there are suggestions from reports at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries that the numbers were larger in the past.
Look out for Long-tailed Duck round our coast, particularly in the winter, as they surface dive for food. They are capable of reaching depths of up to 60 metres. They enjoy a varied diet, which includes molluscs like cockles and clams, ragworms, crustaceans and small fish. They are usually very active, with birds regularly diving or taking off and flying short distances. Males will also display to females, throwing their head back and calling. It is quite a spectacle.
