Teal duck: breed description and species where whistles live and diet

Teal is a small river duck that is known for its abundance. The migratory bird feeds on animal and vegetable food, lives in flocks. Prefers to live in northern and temperate climates. During the nesting period, the teal break into pairs. A couple is created for a long time, sometimes for life. They are favorite objects of sport and commercial hunting, despite their very small size.

Description and features

Teal ducks are ubiquitous, and they got their name for the characteristic sounds they make - “chirk-chirk”. The length of the body in males is about 40 centimeters, in females - 32-35 centimeters, an adult individual reaches a maximum weight of only 600 grams.It is difficult to distinguish a duck from a drake with the naked eye, especially outside the mating season, when teal plumage of both sexes is dark, gray and brown tones predominate.

Types of whistle

There are about 20 types of teal in total, but only 4 of them come across in the Russian Federation. The teal differs in plumage shade, characteristic sounds, favorite habitats and behavior patterns:

1. Teal Whistle. The smallest representative of the duck breed, the weight of males barely reaches 450 grams, and females - even less, body length - about 33-35 centimeters. Distinctive features are wings with pointed ends and a bright blue-green stripe passing near the eyes on a red head. The plumage is gray, a light stripe along the wing. This teal whistles loudly, which is why it deserves its name.
2. Teal crackling. He received the nickname due to the fact that it crackles loudly, he was also called the gray-winged, or kostle. The whistle is larger in size, and its difference is an elongated gray beak with a red base.
3. Teal-kloktun. In the mating season, it looks elegant and spectacular. The head is decorated with a black cap, a golden stripe with white and black edges extends from its sides. The breast is bright pink, the sides of the body are blue. They were nicknamed Kloktuns for shouting “clo-clo-clo” during flights and while on the water.
4. Teal marble. The plumage is gray, with characteristic light spots on a gray-brown body. The marble bird species is dying out.

All Teal breeds are great flyers thanks to their pointed wings. They instantly soar into the air, they do not need a run. The flight is fast, the landing is silent.

Where live and lifestyle

The habitual habitat of the teal is a temperate climate throughout Eurasia. In Russia, the bird can be recognized in almost any region, with the exception of the cold northern regions. Chirka ducks nest in Asia, in the Far East.The smallest variety of teal (marble) nests in the Volga delta, on small lakes of the Caspian lowland. During the flight and wintering ducks are located in Western and Southern Europe, Africa, Asia.

Birds prefer to winter on lakes, water meadows, river deltas, overgrown sea bays. During periods of searching for a pair and creating nests, their favorite places are small lakes, swamps located in the forest-tundra belts. Thickets of reeds and sedges are preferred on the pond, where they settle in floodplains.

Teal Diet

The diet of the teal is mixed - they can eat both animal food (in the spring and summer seasons) and vegetable food (in autumn and winter). Going hunting, they completely immerse their head in the water, and the tail remains above the surface.

What was captured during the dive, the bird passes through its beak, filtering from the silt. They can also collect food from the surface and the ground.

Teals eat whatever they find in the backwaters:

• shellfish;
• worms;
• small crustaceans;
• insects (adults and their larvae);
• sedge;
• grain of large plants;
• seeds and roots of crops growing along the banks;
• duckweed, cereals, rice

During the hunt, teals remain above the surface of the water, because they cannot dive - young ducklings have this ability, but they lose it with age.

Reproduction and lifespan

Puberty of ducks occurs at the age of one. The teal begin to select partners for themselves even during the flight, some of the birds start mating games only at the nesting site. They arrive at the end of March or mid-April, as soon as areas of open water appear.

The courtship process is loud and noisy. The male circles around the female, displays his bright outfit, flaps his wings and makes loud noises, can dip his beak into the water, and then sharply raise his head to create a fountain of spray.

The female makes her partner understand her interest by quacking. Many drakes take to the air, circling over the lake and becoming a target for hunters.

Nests with a diameter of 15-18 centimeters are built by birds 150 meters from the water in sedge bushes, windbreaks, and willow bushes. They dig holes, line them with feathers and down. The female lays 8-15 eggs and incubates them for 21-24 days. Immediately after the last egg has been laid, the drakes create male flocks and move to seasonal feather replacement sites.

Ducklings hatch in June-July, immediately after birth, they are able to get their own food, covered with a dense layer of fluff, actively swim, diving under water. The duck rises on the wing at the age of one month. As the offspring mature, the teal change feathers and roam in flocks to their usual places of food, waiting for the autumn migration to the south. Teal are considered long-lived among all varieties of ducks. They live to be 18 or 19, and sometimes 21.

Hunting these ducks

Despite the small size of the teal, this duck is very fond of hunters, because the meat of this bird in cooking is classified as a delicacy. The yield of pure meat after slaughter is almost 70% of the total duck weight.

Marble and kloktun are endangered species of ducks, so they were listed in the Red Book, the number of crackers is greater. But hunting in the Russian Federation is only allowed for whistlers.

Teal is a bird that can be found at almost any latitude in Russia and throughout Eurasia.Despite being very small, the duck attracts hunters, which is why the population has been declining in recent years. The ability to take off almost vertically, fly excellently and without noise, gives the teal the opportunity to hide in small shady reservoirs, inaccessible to ducks of large breeds.

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