Brief description of the teal duck. Teal-whistle duck. Description of the breed and life cycle. Description and varieties

Area. Nesting range teal-whistle covers almost all of Western Europe, the Soviet Union, except for the northern parts of the tundra zone, as well as Southern Kazakhstan and most of the territory of the Central Asian republics. It goes south to Northern Iran, Northwestern Mongolia and Manchuria.

Inhabits the northern half of Japan and the western part of North America north to Kotzebue Bay and the river delta. Mekenzie. East to Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake, the mouth of the Churchill and Nelson Rivers on the shores of Hudson Bay, and the western edges of the Great Lakes. South to the lower Missouri and Los Angeles. In addition, a separate breeding population occupies Lakes Erie, Ontario and the upper reaches of the river. St. Lawrence.

Wintering areas surround the entire coastal zone of Europe from Southern Norway in the north to the Black Sea in the south. They also occupy North-West Africa, the Nile Basin, the Red Sea, Iraq, Iran, India, the northern part of Indo-China, a significant part of China, Korea and Japan. In America, the winter range of the whistler extends from the Queen Charlotte and Ontario islands in the north to Mexico and the Antilles (inclusive) in the south.

Nature of stay. Throughout much of its range, the teal is a migratory bird. The settled species lives only in the British Isles, Iceland, Mediterranean countries and the southeastern part of its range on the American continent.

Biotope. During nesting time, exclusively fresh inland bodies of water are predominantly small lakes, streams and rivers. In winter and during migration, it does not avoid sea coasts. It is found from forest-tundra and tundra to deserts, but is especially characteristic of bodies of water in forest landscapes.

Subspecies and varying characters. The European-Asian part of the range is occupied by a typical form A. s. crecca L., 1758; America is inhabited by a subspecies A. s. carolinensis G melin, 1789, well distinguished by the fact that the green and red spots on the sides of the head are not separated by white stripes. A vague light line is outlined only from the beak to the eyebrow. But on the sides of the crop in front of the wing there is a wide white transverse stripe. The streakiness of the mantle is thinner and more frequent, making the bird appear darker from above. Shoulder feathers without black outer webs. Females of the American subspecies do not differ in external features from birds of the eastern hemisphere. Frequently flies to the southwestern coast of Greenland; flights to the north-east of Siberia are possible.

Areas where moulting birds gather. The main area of mass concentrations of drakes during the molting period lies in the steppe and forest-steppe zone of the southeast of European Russia and Southwestern Siberia. It extends from the Volga delta through the middle reaches of the Urals, the Ilek basin, the Kustanai and Kurgaldzhin lake regions to the lakes of the Southern Trans-Urals and the Barabinsk steppe. No other points of similarly massive concentration of moulting whistlers are known. However, they molt in some numbers in other places as well. Thus, whistling ducks are found in flocks of molting ducks in Matsal-Vik Bay (Estonia) and in flooded forests on the Rybinsk Reservoir. In the vast fields in the lower reaches of the Ob, single-tailed whistlers are found in isolated numbers among thousands of flocks of pintails, while alone they moult in the floodplains of taiga and forest-tundra rivers on the left bank of the Yenisei. Finally, minor aggregations of moulting schools are known in the Lena and Anadyr basins.

Main wintering grounds. Massive wintering grounds of teal are located on the coasts of the British Isles, as well as off the coast of the continent from Northern France to Denmark and Southern Sweden. Icelandic teals spend part of the winter locally. Teal spend the winter in large numbers in Spain, Southern France, Italy and the adjacent islands. They winter en masse everywhere on the Balkan Peninsula. The southern limits of regular wintering grounds are the Canary and Azores islands, the coast of North-West Africa, the Nile basin and the shores of the Red Sea. Large numbers of whistling whales winter on the Sea of Azov, as well as off the coast of the Southern Caspian Sea, in South-Eastern Transcaucasia and South-Western Turkmenistan. In smaller numbers, they spend the winter on Murghab, Tedjen, Upper Amu Darya and Ili. In huge numbers in Iraq, Iran (Seistan and on the coast of the Gulf of Oman), Balochistan and throughout India. Winters in Northern Indochina and the Philippines. Numerous in winter in the coastal zone of China, along the valleys of the country's major rivers, on the lakes of Southern Tibet, in Korea and throughout Japan.

Voice - Anas crecca (22Kb)

Nature of stay. In the British Isles, partly in Iceland and near the Mediterranean Sea, the teal is a resident bird. It's the same in Japan. Throughout the USSR, teal migrate south for the winter. Partial sedentism can be assumed only in relation to Transcaucasia and Kamchatka, but in the latter place it remains for the winter in very small numbers near hot springs.

Seasonal migrations. Banding data allows us to talk about the main directions of seasonal migrations in different geographical populations of teal.

Teal inhabiting Northern Germany, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, the Scandinavian countries, Finland, the Baltic Soviet republics, Poland, the northern zone of the European part of the Union east to the Indiga and Pechora rivers, and south to the Moscow and Ivanovo regions. winter in northwestern Europe in large numbers on the British Isles. They travel to their wintering grounds mainly along the shores of the Baltic and North Seas through Northern Germany, Denmark and Holland. Migration in the eastern part of the continent has been poorly studied; all that is known for certain is that the whistlers inhabiting Kamchatka spend the winter in Japan.

Dates. The spring departure of whistlers from their wintering grounds in the British Isles begins in February, when they leave the western coast of the island, crossing it along the valley of the river. Thames. The departure from the South Caspian wintering grounds begins in mid-February, and the bulk of teals disappear by early March. The departure of whistlers wintering in Southern China (Hubei, Sichuan) occurs in March, but is delayed until April, with a massive migration through Zhili in March-April (Caldwell, 1931). On the Japanese islands, teals linger much longer, until the beginning of May, when they unite in huge flocks that fly north over the sea along the coast (Yan, 1942); judging by the banding data, these are probably birds from Kamchatka. In Southern Primorye, whistling whales appear on March 21-25, their gross migration occurs on April 2-13 and can be very intense, the size of resting flocks reaches 200-400 pieces. (Shulpin, 1936). The autumn migration, like that of other ducks, is preceded by the summer migration of drakes. The bulk departs from Anadyr in September, from the Commander Islands in October, and from Kamchatka in September-October. However, in the last place in the area of hot springs, teals stay much longer, and some of them even spend the winter. The autumn migration to the south of Primorye begins at the end of September and at the same time teals reach their wintering grounds in Japan, and in October they already appear in large numbers in Southern China. They fly away from the outskirts of Yakutsk at the end of September. The most intense flow of whistlers passes through Holland in the second half of September, through Denmark in September-October, and at the beginning of October they reach wintering grounds in South Wales (England). Their numbers in the latter place gradually increase until mid-December.

Biotope. During the nesting period, teals inhabit inland reservoirs of the most diverse types - from rivers in the tundra to steppe and semi-desert lakes. At this time they give clear preference to small bodies of water over large, wooded areas - over open ones. In the northern part of their range, whistlers are characteristic of the plains and rare in the mountains; on the contrary, at the southern limits they inhabit mainly or even exclusively lake plateaus in the mountains (Transcaucasia, the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, Northwestern Mongolia, Hondo Island in Japan).

During molting, a significant part of the drakes migrate to steppe and semi-desert areas, to reservoirs with rich surface vegetation. Teal often spend the winter in coastal areas, where flocks of them rest during the day on sea bays, and at dawn they feed in the shallow waters of a wide variety of inland waters, not avoiding salty ones.

Number. The teal is one of the most numerous species of ducks, in many places outnumbering the mallard, with which it has a very similar habitat. The teal is very common and numerous throughout the forest and forest-steppe belt, becoming rarer in the forest-tundra and rarer in the tundra. It is much less common in open steppes, and penetrates into desert areas only sporadically.

Voice - Anas crecca (43Kb)

Reproduction. Teal teals usually reach sexual maturity at the age of one year, but some birds of this species apparently do not participate in reproduction in the first year. It is this category that probably includes birds found in summer outside their main breeding range in Turkmenistan, the Syr Darya, Semirechye, Mongolia, Iraq, Seistan and other places. The whistler is completely mistakenly considered a typical polygamist (Tugarinov, 1941). The reason for this is the fact that throughout the middle forest belt the teal is the most numerous duck, which nests in the immediate vicinity of a pair, which is why drakes from neighboring pairs often flock to the call of a female who has left the nest. However, pairs in whistlers are expressed very clearly, no less clearly than in mallards. They are formed later than in the latter species. Almost the entire winter, teals stay in large flocks, and only in February, before leaving the Azerbaijani wintering grounds, some of the birds within these flocks separate into pairs. Further pairing occurs en route during the spring migration. According to observations on the river. Mologe, at least 20% of teals in migratory flocks have already split into pairs.

The mating behavior of the teal is very similar to the mating behavior of the mallard. Drakes also swim around the females with their heads pulled back into their shoulders, their plumage fluffed up and copper-red and green spots on their cheeks. At the same time, they often push their heads upward with a sharp movement, emitting a ringing metallic “grunt” sound. A duck, swimming near the male it has chosen, scares off an imaginary enemy with its beak over its shoulder and quacks a tongue twister. Drakes often straighten their wing mirror, lay their head behind the wing and make a rattling sound by running the nail of their beak along the lower surface of the rib of the flight feather. They lower their beak into the water, and then quickly, almost vertically, raise their entire body and throw their heads up, raising a fountain of splashes and emitting a sharp whistle. Like mallards, they often raise their hindquarters momentarily with their tail spread, raise their wing elbows, and press their heads against their backs, while displaying a striking wing mirror, matte black undertail plumage with light spots on the sides, and black teardrop spots on the crop and chest. Following this, the drake swims around the female, spread out on the water with her neck stretched across the surface. Then, switching to normal swimming, the drake raises its head on an outstretched neck, and all the time turns it towards its female with brightly colored red-green cheeks. Often flocks of them circle over the water, flying in a special current flight, which we described for the pintail.

For nesting, whistlers choose places with good shelter, under which they hide their nests. In the tundra, they arrange them in thickets of willow grass, on sedge hummocks near small rivers or in dry ravines under cedar bushes (Anadyr). In the taiga and middle forest zones, more than 50% of the nests of this teal are located in the forest near narrow forest streams or in wooded ridges among river floodplains or near large lakes and reservoirs with wooded banks. In pine and spruce groves they make nests under the cover of ferns or in dense thickets of lingonberries and blueberries, and in small forests and on the edges under small pines and fir trees. In clearings, whistlers often nest under heaps of dead wood and brushwood. In floodplain meadows, teals willingly settle near small lakes with alder thickets and in the bushes of the near-terrace part of the floodplain; rarely, whistler nests are also found in treeless meadow areas. In such cases, they are hidden either in dense sedge hummocks, or in clumps of tall grasses and weeds that stand out among the main, lower grass stand. Of the 33 nests found in the floodplains of the Sheksna and Mologa rivers, 18 were made among willow and alder bushes, 2 under fir trees in the forest, 2 under piles of brushwood in a peat bog and 9 on sedge hummocks among swampy meadows. 65% of nests found off the shores of the Rybinsk Reservoir were located under young trees, bushes and dead wood, 28% in clumps of tall grass and only 7% on the ground without good shelter. In the forest-steppe (Barabinskaya steppe), whistlers nest either in birch groves or in thickets of weeds, less often among sedge hummocks on borrowings. In the south of their range, they most often use forest urems in river floodplains and thickets of weeds near mill ponds for nesting.

Whistling nests are usually located close to water, but often at a considerable distance (up to 500 m) from it. The latter often occurs because whistling whales, which start nesting early, build nests along the edge of the floodplain near temporary spring puddles, which dry up after the water subsides. The teal prepares a hole for the nest by pulling out the roots of plants with its beak and levels it with rotational movements of the chest. In one day, the female often makes several holes, one of which she adapts for the nest. The lining of the nest consists of a small amount of dry thin cereals, and by the time of incubation, rolls of dark fluff also appear along its edges, with which the duck covers the entire nest when leaving it to rest. The diameter of the nest is 14-18 cm, the height of its sides above the ground is 7-9 cm, the width of the tray is 12-15 cm and its depth is about 10 cm.

Teals begin laying eggs soon after arrival. So, on the river Mologa in 1940, the whistlers appeared on April 20, on April 28 the first nests were already discovered, and in May they contained full clutches. Near Moscow, nesting begins in the first third of April (April 9-15). In Estonia and the Kirov region. nesting time occurs in mid-May (Koch, 1911; Plessky, 1937). Near Tobolsk, full clutches appear on average on May 24, on Elogaya a nest with a full clutch was found on June 6, and near Krasnoyarsk on June 15 (embryos in down) (Yudin), on Vilyue on June 27, and on Anadyr an unbroken clutch was found on July 5. On the Commander Islands, eggs appear in nests in the first half of June. The earliest clutch in Primorye was registered on May 13, and on the Alpine plateau of Kamimukhi, on Hondo Island (Japan), a nest with fresh eggs was found on May 24 (Yan, 1942). The usual number of eggs in a full clutch in the Mologa floodplain, in Estonia (Koch, 1911) and in Germany (Nithammer, 1938) is 8-10, on the Rybinsk Reservoir 9-10 (from 8 to 10), in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra 9-11 (Gladkov , 1951). The nest found on Anadyr contained 8 eggs (Portenko, 1939), and on Eloguya and near Krasnoyarsk there were 9 eggs each (Sludsky, Yudin). A large number of eggs in a clutch (up to 15) occurs due to the fact that two females lay in one nest, the nest of one of which is destroyed.

The eggs are white, slightly yellowish, the difference between the sharp and blunt ends of the eggs is insignificant. Egg size: 41-49.5x30.5-35.2, average 45.6x31.6 mm. The same for Germany - 45.3x32.7 mm. The weight of unhatched eggs is 26-30 g, and for Germany the average is 27.7 g (Niethammer, 1938).

Downy chicks weigh 26-31 g on the day of hatching (Mologa river, 16 weighings). They are much more independent than the down jackets of mallards and other river ducks. From the very first day of life, the chicks dive perfectly in case of danger and run on the ground much better than other ducklings. Until about 5 days of age, the brood gathers in the evenings to its nest, if it is located near water, and spends the night climbing under the female. In case of danger, the female warns the brood with an alarming cry, after which the young scatter on the ground and hide in the grass, spread out and stretching out their head and neck, or dive into the coastal thickets of aquatic vegetation. As the chicks grow, their diving ability becomes worse. They can no longer stay under water for a long time, and it becomes much easier to detect the frightened brood. The chicks fly on their wings at about a month of age, and from this time the brood begins to fly from body of water to body of water. Soon after this, tabooing of broods begins and their concentration on large bodies of water. In the middle zone of the European part of the RSFSR, local movements of teal teal begin at the end of July, which can probably be considered as an intermediate flight. We observed this phenomenon in the floodplain of the river. Mologi. At night and at dawn, huge flocks of teal, several hundred at a time, flew down the river and landed on its wide reaches, and in the morning they scattered across the lakes of the interfluve.

About 40 wild species live on the territory of the Russian Federation. Most of them are hunted. The teal duck is a river species and is one of the most common trophies among commercial or sport hunters. The material contains a description of the subspecies of this bird, with photos and characteristics.

Description and varieties

There are a lot of dabbling ducks. Species differ in body size, plumage color, and habits. The teal duck is the smallest in this category. The bird is in demand because it is found everywhere.

Various subspecies can be found in the south and the Far East. The exception is the cold northern regions. Ducks got their name from the sound they make when communicating - “chir-chir”. Characteristics:

body length - about 35 cm in females, about 40 cm in drakes;
body weight - 300-600 g;
The drake is larger than the duck and has a brighter color.

Attention! The color of the bird is brighter only during the mating season. The rest of the time the drake looks like its pale gray female. Only the color of the feather mirror on the wing remains unchanged.

Types of teal:

Features of subspecies

the whistle whistles loudly;
the rattle crackles;
the kloktun makes dull bubbling sounds;
Marbled ducks “chirp” quietly.

Duck nesting continues for several weeks in February-March. Certain species of birds demonstrate interesting mating displays. Moreover, drakes sometimes pursue representatives of other wild duck species.

Gadlings are very active during breeding, their mating ceremony is noisy: the birds make loud crackling sounds. More than one applicant takes care of one duck at once. Drakes of this subspecies are lured by decoy females and duck stuffed animals. Whistlers have a lengthy mating ritual. It consists of complex steps in the air and on the ground. After mating, the drake slowly circles above the female and becomes an easy target.

All types of birds make nests in grass, reed thickets or bushes near water bodies. Marbled teal sometimes settles in trees. The offspring quickly adapt and take wing by the start of the hunting season. The exception is kloktuna ducklings, which develop slowly.

Attention! It is almost impossible to find marbled ducks in the Russian Federation today. The population has declined due to a decrease in the number of their homes - small natural bodies of water. Ducks are now found in India and Spain.

Other characteristics of the duck variety

Teal are able to fly quickly and easily maneuver in the sky. At the sight of water and in times of danger, they instantly fall down like a stone and dive deep. Waterfowl teals can also take off vertically. The secret of such skill is in the special shape of the wings.

Attention! Whistlers are fast flyers. Because of this, they have become a sought-after game for sport hunting. Narrow-nosed teals are the best depth divers.

The river species feeds on plant and animal food (molluscs, insects). By the end of summer, the bird gains fat. By mid-autumn, it gathers in large flocks and flies to warmer regions. Representatives of this species leave their native places later than other duck brethren, and often return later than others.

The meat of teal ducks, according to hunters, is tastier than that of the mallard variety. The extensive habitat and high number of whistlers and gars have made the birds a sought-after game for various types of hunting. It is most likely to find this duck near calm, overgrown ponds and lakes with standing water.

Teal: video

The length of the whistle does not exceed 38 centimeters. Typically the body length is 30 centimeters. The bird weighs no more than 450 grams. Females, as a rule, have a mass of about 250.

Description and features of the whistle

teal whistle named for its ability to whistle clearly and loudly. However, only drakes are distinguished by this ability. Females are nasal and have a muffled quack.

You can hear mini-ducks from spring to fall. For the winter, whistlers go to Africa. There, ducks are found close to spotted hyenas and birds.

Teal go on wanderings, taking an almost vertical start. Miniature ducks owe their ability to fly like this to their narrow and pointed wings. They also make it possible to land on any site. Other ducks do not have such abilities.

In the photo there is a teal whistler often appears next to the mallard. The species have similar habitats. Externally, teals differ not only in size, but also in the emerald “mirrors” on their wings. The rest of the plumage is dark brown with a light belly. It's summer.

In the spring, in preparation for breeding, males become colorful. The feathers on the head become a rich brown with iridescent green accents near the eyes. Emerald fragments are edged in white. Its stripes extend towards its beak. The body of drakes in spring is gray, with streaks.

Lifestyle and habitat

The voice of the teal whistler in Russia it was heard with the appearance of the first clearings. There are no special requirements for reservoirs. Teal also inhabit steppe, forest and rivers of the Tundra. The birds leave the latter for wintering earlier, in September. Mini-ducks fly away from the central part of the country at the end of October.

When choosing between a large and a small body of water, whistlers will prefer the latter. If there are options in the forest and in open areas, the latter will be discarded.

Teal prefer water bodies with rich surface vegetation during the molting period. Birds lose almost all of their guard feathers at once. This interferes with flights. Having become vulnerable, teals want to hide in reeds and coastal bushes.

In terms of altitude, duck colonies are not stable. In the northern regions, teals prefer lowland plains. In the south of the country, whistlers love to inhabit mountain plateaus. Here you need to look for miniature ducks in Transcaucasia, on the coasts of the Caspian Sea, on the border with Mongolia.

Whistlers sometimes settle in the mountains and in Kamchatka. There the ducks remain for the winter, moving to hot springs. Warmth remains nearby and grass grows.

Types of whistle

Ornithologists duck teal whistle classified as river, like the mallard. The hero of the article is one of the species of the genus of birds. It includes teals. There are 20 of them. Along with the prosperous whistler, there are species that are on the verge of extinction, for example, the marbled one.

The last time this teal was seen was in 1984. Perhaps the species became extinct like the duck. Remember the expression: “Walking like a nog”? So, in the 21st century, gogols walk around the planet only in a figurative sense. Birds with a sonorous name have become extinct.

The photo shows marble teal

There are also blue, gray, Madagascar, Auckland, brown, brown, Campbell and chestnut teal. There is an alternative name for each of them. This brings some confusion into the popular consciousness. By the way, the whistler also has additional names: small, sexual, codling.

Among the teals, the whistler is the most loved by hunters and even by mass bird catching enterprises. In Europe, for example, the hero of the article is mined on an industrial scale. Of 100% of the meat harvested, 70% is suitable for sale. Only a few birds can boast of such indicators.

Whistling meat is dietary, easy to prepare, and has excellent taste and vitamin and mineral composition.

Individually, hunters place decoy for teal whistler. More precisely, they set up a decoy-duck. Decoys produce sounds characteristic of birds. Real birds fly to them. All that remains is to shoot them from an ambush.

Teal nutrition

Teal whistler - bird, obtaining food in acrobatic poses. The feathered creature stands on its head. A duck's legs dangle above the water. At this time, the head looks for food under water, capturing it with its beak. The whistle fishes out of the water crumbs of vegetation, bread, grain, and larvae thrown by people.

The diet also includes small crustaceans, worms, mollusks, and insects.

Among plant foods, teals prefer duckweed and cereal seeds. The last whistlers are sought out along the banks of reservoirs. Birds engage in this kind of “fishing” in cold weather. In summer, while animal food is abundant, teals prefer it.

Reproduction and lifespan

A mini-duck reaches sexual maturity at one year of age. Teal whistler female and the male pair up upon arrival at the nesting sites, or even in . Ornithologists ironically say that during the winter duets are created out of love, but in Russia out of necessity. Otherwise, how can we explain that some pairs are formed in advance, long before the breeding season?

Mating games take place on the water. The drake circles near the female, lowering its beak into the water. The head is pressed against the chest. Afterwards, the drake throws its beak upward, spreading its wings. Sprays rise into the air. The dance algorithm is repeated.

The drake's movements are accompanied by the famous whistling. The duck, in the presence of a partner, sharply pecks invisible enemies behind its shoulders, now from the right, now from the left.

Teal whistler nest

After mating, 5-16 eggs are laid in prepared nests. The fertility of whistlers is one of the factors of their prevalence and abundance.

The nest is built by the female. Twigs, dry leaves and grass are used. They are lined with mother's down. Against its brownish background, the beige eggs seem to be camouflaged.

The mother incubates the offspring. The drake flies away to moult. Each 5-mm egg will hatch into a teal on the 22-30th day of development. The minimum period is typical for hot years, and the maximum for cold years.

Teal whistler with chicks

Ducklings emerge from a nest hidden in the vegetation in the first days of life. The mother teaches the offspring to swim and get food.

If the teal does not die in the clutches of predators and does not succumb to disease, it will live 13-16 years. In captivity, miniature ducks can reach 30 years of age.

There are a huge number of wild waterfowl in nature. Many of them are famous for their beautiful appearance, others for their unique properties, and still others for their unusual voice and plumage. Among them is the famous teal duck breed, which can make peculiar sounds reminiscent of “teal, teal.” Few people know that the teal bird has the smallest size compared to other wild waterfowl. This is probably why she was named so affectionately, tenderly and beautifully.

To this day, the behavior of teal-whistles remains poorly studied, which is not surprising. Meeting a bird in real conditions can be problematic, because... she is a tiny, very cautious and unnoticeable creature.

Despite its tiny size, teal is considered a favorite hunting trophy. This is not strange, because the meat of the nimble little ones has incredible culinary properties, thanks to which it is classified as “noble”. But the prosperity of poaching leads to the rapid extermination of the species, so in some regions the number of ducks reaches a critical level.

For example, in the countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula and Great Britain, birds are caught on an industrial scale when they make seasonal migrations.

One of the key features of the teal duck is its peculiar takeoff, which it performs in a vertical manner. At the same time landing occurs in water bodies abundantly overgrown with vegetation. Agree, not all birds can boast of such unique abilities. What is the secret of such flying mastery? Everything is very simple, the teal duck has unique anatomical features of its wings, which have pointed ends and a narrow shape.

Several species of birds are found in the wild., but two types are considered the most popular:

teal-whistle;
teal

The first breed is considered the most common, because it is found in different regions and climate zones. An adult rarely gains more than 200-450 grams of weight, due to which it can perform complex maneuvers in the air.

Incredibly beautiful color The plumage gives the bird a special attractiveness. The head and neck of the drakes are covered with a reddish-brown breeding plumage, and the chin and lower part of the neck are covered with black plumage. On both sides of the head there are bluish-green stripes with a reddish tint. In turn, they are distinguished by a narrow white border.

The upper part of the body is painted light gray with black stripes. The rump of the tail is distinguished by a brownish-gray color with a unique velvety border. The legs are gray with an olive tint, and the beak is black.

What distinguishes a duck from a drake is the presence brownish-brown color in plumage.

In summer and spring, the color becomes monotonous and acquires brownish-gray shades. Because of this, it can easily be confused with a duck, and the only obvious difference is the mirror, which does not change color, and the black beak. The color of females does not change.

The population size of the teal is not as large as that of the whistler. Externally, they are noticeably different from each other, because... the former have a long white stripe above the eye. The beak of the codfish is significantly longer and colored dark gray.

Codfish are heavier than their relatives, and the sounds that females make are characteristic of both varieties. The drake is famous for its characteristic cry, reminiscent of the sounds of “crer-crerrer”.

Where does the teal live?

This waterfowl can be found in almost all regions of the Russian Federation and the countries of the former Soviet Union, excluding the cold regions of Siberia). Ducks prefer the forest-steppe zone and forest-tundra. For housing, they look for hard-to-reach lakes, which are densely overgrown with reeds and other vegetation.

A real treasure for the teal is a small body of water where there is no current. Most often this is a small lake with standing water, or a sedge bog. The thing is that such an area abounds in a wide variety of food, including mollusks, small insects and emergent plants. Ducks' nests are located near water, but sometimes the distance from the reservoir reaches 500 meters. This is due to the fact that in spring the water level is much higher than in summer, so if the lake dries up, the nest ends up on dry land.

Features of reproduction

The teal is considered sexually mature in the first year of life. The nesting period begins in the spring, and drakes look after not only ducks of their own species, but also representatives of other breeds, including mallards.

During nesting, the male arranges courtship games with the duck, circling around her with his head pressed to his body and his beak lowered into the water. . To conquer a female drakes can emit peculiar screams and whistles, during which they sharply throw their heads up to raise a fountain of bright splashes. Some drakes try to show the female their luxurious plumage and mirror with a metallic tint. To do this, they spread their wing and create a rattling sound by running the nail of their beak along the bottom of the flight feather. Females are silent creatures, but sometimes they make very loud calls.

Teal teals are excellent at hiding their nests, and they do this not only among sedge thickets. If the pond is located in a forest, then most likely the bird will use dense thickets as a refuge. Also, the nest may be located in thickets of pine or spruce, under brushwood. The construction of a home is carried out taking into account many subtleties, so the bird takes the procedure very seriously. At the first stage, she digs a small hole, which she securely covers with twigs and plants as insulation. In addition, feathers are placed in the nest.

As for the eggs, then they have tiny sizes and a matte greenish color. Codfish eggs are slightly elongated, while whistling eggs are flattened.

Very often, a duck lays about 12 eggs in one nest. Caring mothers can bring as many as 15, so many people have the question: “how does such a tiny bird hatch so many eggs.” It takes 21 to 24 days to incubate the offspring.

Chicks

Newborn chicks are born very active and lively. Immediately a few hours after hatching, they begin to jump into the water and begin swimming, diving and running through the water. At the age of one month, the chicks make their first independent flights. Despite this behavior, female mothers remain very caring. If a child is in danger If there is any danger in the form of a predator, then she is ready to sacrifice her life to save him. In a fit of passion, she flaps her wings across the water and tries to drive the predator away from the babies.

The lifespan of teal ducks reaches 21 years, due to which they are considered real long-livers. In winter, males and females live separately. Drakes prefer northern regions, while ducks move south. The presence of narrow wings allows you to perform masterful takeoffs and rise to a decent height in a few seconds. It is for this reason that many hunters consider duck one of the most desirable trophies.

Catching prey is very difficult, because her behavior is always playful and active.

It is important to note that in addition to the high quality of the meat, duck eggs are incredibly tasty. Many believe that teal eggs are much better than the eggs of other wild birds.