Eurasian teal

Voice

The male gives a clear, short, bell-like whistle, krik or prrit, which in flocks sounds like ringing chimes and carries a long way. The female quacks high, thin and nasal. Heard most from October to March, often from unseen birds inside reed edges.

Identification

Very small, short-necked duck with a slim dark bill. The male has a chestnut head with a green, yellow-bordered eye patch, finely vermiculated grey flanks crossed by a white horizontal stripe above the wing, and a yellow triangle under the black stern. The female is brown-spotted with a pale mark at the bill base; both sexes show a green speculum with a white leading edge.

Confusion species

Garganey has a longer, paler bill, a more sharply defined pale spot at the female's bill base, and blue-grey forewings. Green-winged Teal males show a vertical white bar on the flank and lack the horizontal stripe. Size and the fast twisting flight rule out any larger duck.

Habitat

Shallow muddy waters with cover: bog pools, saltmarsh creeks, reed-fringed ditches, wet grassland and silting-up ponds. Breeds concealed in marsh, raised bog and dune slacks. Feeds by sieving along the waterline for seeds and small invertebrates, usually close against the vegetation.

Range and movements

Breeds from Iceland and Scandinavia to central Europe, thinly and locally in the Netherlands. Dutch wetlands, especially the Delta and Wadden area, hold large winter numbers from northern Europe and Russia. In Spain it is an abundant winter visitor to Doñana, the Ebro delta and inland lagoons.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• Migration direction
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Work muddy pool edges in October and November, soon after sunrise when birds emerge from the reed fringe. Stay low and quiet, because disturbed flocks leave at speed. Check every male for a vertical flank bar, as Green-winged Teal turns up almost annually.

Conservation status

Numerous and widespread across the Palearctic, so not globally threatened. The Dutch breeding population is small and sensitive to drying out and the loss of small-scale wet marsh. As a winter visitor the species benefits from wetland restoration on floodplains and from reduced hunting pressure in parts of Europe.