Order: Anseriformes

Family: Anatidae

 

Size:  up to 34-38 cm in length

Weight: around 320 to 340 g

 

Key Features: one of the smallest wild ducks, drake (male) in breeding plumage is also one of the most handsome of birds. The body is pale grey, finely lined with darker striations on the underside, and slightly broader markings on the back and wings, with a cream chest patch featuring fine black spots. The head is a dark brick red, almost russet, boldly crossed by a broad bottle-green eye stripe lined with cream. Under the black and white patterned tail, there is a noticeable creamy-yellow patch, which is very conspicuous in flight. The female is typically mottled brown, as are the males after moulting when they are said to be in 'eclipse', and juveniles. Both sexes display a wing-bar in flight; this bar is dark green and black with a white flash in front of the other two colours. 

 

Voice: make a distinctive ringing whistle similar to that of the pintail but higher pitched, and thought by some to have inspired the common English name. The female teal makes a soft and high-pitched quack.

 

Breeding: The eggs, laid in April or May, are greeny-buff and may number as many as ten. They hatch after three weeks of incubation and the duck leads them down to water as soon as the ducklings' down is dry.

 

Diet: feed on waterweed, insects and other water invertebrates.

 

Habitat: Outside the breeding season, teal form large flocks on lakes and coastal bays. During the breeding season the birds choose brackish or freshwater lakes and ponds in upland wooded or forested areas.

 

Habits: The Eurasian teal usually feeds by dabbling, upending or grazing; it may submerge its head and on occasion even dive to reach food. 

 

Conservation Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Aythya fuligula. In WildScreen Arkive. Retrieved on 05th July, 2014 from http://www.arkive.org/teal/anas-crecca/

 

Aythya fuligula. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on July 05th, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_teal

 

BirdLife International (2014) Species factsheet: Anas crecca. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 05th July, 2014.

 

Photo Courtesy

J.M.Garg, Licensed under GFDL via Wikimedia Commons

Common Teal (Anas crecca)