Common Teal

Description:

Common or Eurasian Teal (Anas crecca) is a common and widespread duck which breeds in temperate Eurasia and migrates south in winter. The bird gives its name to the blue-green colour teal.The Eurasian Teal is the smallest dabbling duck alive. It is a highly gregarious duck outside the breeding season and can form large flocks. The drakes in nuptial plumage appear grey from a distance, with a dark head, a yellowish behind, and a white stripe running along the flanks. Their head and upper neck is chestnut, with a wide and iridescent dark green patch that starts immediately before the eye and arcs to the upper hindneck. The patch is bordered with thin yellowsh-white lines, and a single line of that colour extends from the patch's forward end, curving along the base of the bill. The breast is buff with small round brown spots. The outer scapular feathers are white, with a black border to the outer vanes, and form the white side-stripe when the bird is in resting position. The speculum feathers are iridescent blackish-green with white tips, and form the speculum together with the yellowish-white tips of the larger upperwing coverts (which are otherwise grey). The underwing is whitish, with grey remiges, dense dark spotting on the inner coverts and a dark leading edge. The tail and tail coverts are black, with a bright yellowish-buff triangular patch in the center of the coverts at each side. The hen itself is yellowish-brown, somewhat darker on wings and back. It has a dark greyish-brown upper head, hindneck, eyestripe and feather pattern. The pattern is dense short streaks on the head and neck, and scaly spots on the rest of the body

Habitat:

It is commonly found in sheltered wetlands and feeds on seeds and aquatic invertebrates. Tablas de Daimiel National Park. It is a floodplain wetland created where the Cigüela river joins the Guadiana river.

Notes:

spanish name: cerceta comun