Anas acuta is commonly known as Common Pintail, Northern Pintail and Pintail or Itik Muara in Malay. In fact, the pintail gets its name from its pointed tail feathers. It can be found in marshes, ponds, lakes, rivers, canals and grain fields, such as rice, oats, wheat and barley. Most of the pintail's diet is made up of the seeds of aquatic plants like pondweeds, sedges, grasses and smartweeds. It also eats small aquatic animals and feeds on seeds in fields. 

The pintail has a very long, thin neck, a greyish-black bill, a small head and long, pointed tail feathers. The males have a dark brown head and white breast with a white streak extending up the side of its head. From their back extending down and around their bellies, they have black and white speckled feathers with a yellow patch of feathers just above and behind their feet. The males also have a long, thin tail feather that can measure as much as 10 cm long. The female has more of a drab, grey colour to her feathers to help camouflage her as she sits on her nest, and her pintail feather is only about one-quarter the length of the males.