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Yellow-billed Teal | Anas flavirostris
Chileense taling | Pato barcino | Marreca-pardinha
The Yellow-billed Teal is a small, stocky teal with a yellow bill, common on the lakes and bogs of the puna in the south of the guide area. In the Andes of Peru and Bolivia the subspecies oxyptera occurs, which is paler and less spotted than the birds of the lowlands of Argentina. To the north it is replaced by Andean Teal.
Voice
The male gives a clear, short, whistled prrip, often repeated; the female a rasping, descending quack.
Recording: Franco Vushurovich — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
36–43 cm, with a rounded head, a short neck and a short, pointed tail. The head and neck are greyish brown with fine dark speckles, slightly darker on the crown. The body is buff, with dark spots on the breast and flanks; the Andean form has fairly pale, sparsely spotted underparts. The bill is bright yellow with a black culmen and tip. The speculum is black with a green gloss and buff leading and trailing edges. The sexes are nearly alike; the female is slightly duller.
Confusion species
Yellow-billed Pintail Anas georgica is larger and slimmer, with a longer neck and tail, a warm brown crown and a browner body. Andean Teal Anas andium has a dark, blue-grey bill and lives further north. Puna Teal Spatula puna has a dark cap, white cheeks and a blue bill.
Habitat
Lakes, pools, bogs (bofedales), slow-flowing streams and wet meadows on the puna, roughly between 3000 and 4600 m, locally lower. It dabbles in shallow water and grazes on shores, feeding on seeds, aquatic plants and invertebrates. It nests on the ground in dense vegetation or in holes among rocks, sometimes in an old nest chamber or tree cavity.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Peru in the Andes, mainly from the centre southward, locally also on coastal lagoons. In Bolivia on the altiplano and in the Andes. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in northern Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil and the Falkland Islands.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search lakes and bogs in the puna, for example at Lake Titicaca, in Salinas y Aguada Blanca near Arequipa and around Lake Junín. Small groups often sit on the shore among other ducks.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Hunted locally; puna bogs and lakes are under pressure from grazing, water extraction and mining.
Scientific name
Anas flavirostris | Vieillot, 1816
Vieillot described the species in 1816 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Anas was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. The genus name comes from Latin anas, 'duck'. The species name combines Latin flavus, 'yellow', with -rostris, 'billed', after the yellow bill. The specimen the first description was based on came from Buenos Aires, Argentina.