The North American population has dropped from about 6 million to just over 3 million in recent decades so it was nice to see this widespread circumpolar species still abundant in suitable habitat in Japan. Eurasian birds have been assigned to the slightly smaller nominate race A. a. acuta, but most authorities now consider this species to be monotypic. Canon PowerShot SX60
References:
Carboneras, C. & Kirwan, G.M. (2019). Northern Pintail (Anas acuta). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/52884 on 30 March 2019).
Clark, R. G., J. P. Fleskes, K. L. Guyn, D. A. Haukos, J. E. Austin, and M. R. Miller (2014). Northern Pintail (Anas acuta), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.163