Your coin captures a moment typically seen during Canada's seasonal cycle of a pair of migrating pintails.
The northern pintail is so named for its pin-like tail feathers. These long, skinny plumes accentuate the pintail's slender build. It's an elegant duck, with males typically sporting a chocolate-brown head, a blue-grey bill and a white neck with combinations of black, grey and white along the back, and a blackish-green patch called the "speculum" shimmering from grey wings.
In contrast, the female's colouring is far more muted to provide critical camouflage while nesting, but her bronze speculum and mottled brown feathers have an understated elegance all their own.
The pintail is a fast and agile flyer. It's one of the first migratory birds to return to its Canadian nesting grounds after wintering in the south. The greatest numbers breed on the prairies and in the western Arctic, where birders can delight in the graceful duck they affectionately call the "Greyhound of the Air."
Specifications
Mintage 10000
Composition fine silver (99.99% pure)
Finish proof
Weight (g) 15.87
Diameter (mm)34
Edge serrated
Certificate serialized
Face value 10 dollars
Artist Trevor Tennant (reverse), Susanna Blunt (obverse)