Anas crecca
The UK’s smallest duck yet they fly all the way from the Baltics, and even as far as western Russia, to reach the Solent every winter. Not bad for a duck weighing little more than 300 grams. They are between 34-38cm long, compared with 50-65cm for mallard ducks.
You might see the occasional teal throughout the summer on our coastlines but you’ll see many more between September and April, after their autumn migration.
The males of this species have a beautiful green eye stripe – from where we get the name of the fashionable greenish-blue colour – edged with a thin border of creamy white and a dapper chestnut head. From a distance you might more easily notice their horizontal white and black lines along their sides and their pale custard-yellow triangle on their behinds. Their body plumage has delicate wiggly markings known as ‘vermiculations’ from the Latin for worms
Females sport a more standard grey brown plumage, often with a small white flash under their tails, but like the male of the species, they show a vivid metallic patch of green on their secondary wing feathers. This wing patch has an iridescent colour in several species of duck – it’s called a ‘speculum’ from the Latin for mirror because of the way it catches the light.
Teal mostly eat seeds in the winter, but you might spot then snacking on a tasty bug or two. They mostly feed in shallow water at night. You’ll find them in both freshwater and coastal habitats.
If you see a large flock of ducks, you’re likely to find a teal hidden amongst them, while the collective name for a group of teal ducks is a ‘spring’. This is because when they take off, they spring almost vertically upwards into the air, almost as if they’ve bounced up from a hidden trampoline.
The teal’s call varies between male and female – drakes have a very high-pitched ‘crik crik’ or ‘peep peep’ call while females’ calls are more of a quack.
Teal are amber listed in the UK and are a qualifying feature for the Solent and Southampton Water and Langstone and Chichester Harbours Special Protection Areas – that means, when the sites were designated, a nationally significant number of teal used these coastlines in the winter.
A group of teal is called a ‘spring’ as they suddenly take-off almost vertically when spooked. From a distance their chorus of piping calls sound like tiny bells being struck.
