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Garganey

Garganey

Spatula querquedula

Identify the Garganey by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Garganey is a small dabbling duck that breeds across Europe and the Palearctic and is wholly migratory, wintering in Africa south of the Sahara, South Asia and even Australasia. Males have a bold white stripe over the eye curving back to the neck and a pale grey body, while females are teal-like. It is inconspicuous, feeding mostly at the surface in shallow, vegetated water.

Did you know?

  • Its name querquedula is thought to imitate its call.
  • It is the only European duck that is entirely a long-distance migrant.

Voice

Song

About the species

Identification

The breeding male has a broad white stripe from above the eye curving back to the nape on a brown head, a brown breast sharply demarcated from grey flanks, and blue-grey upperwing coverts. The female is mottled brown, with a pale supercilium, a dark eye stripe, a pale throat and a pale spot at the bill base; these features separate her from a female Teal. In flight both sexes show a green speculum bordered with white.

Family

Anatidae

Size

Large (crow)

Colours

brown, grey, white

About the habitat

Shallow freshwater marshes, flooded meadows, ponds, lake margins and grassy steppe lakes with rich emergent vegetation.

Diet

Mainly aquatic invertebrates such as insects and small crustaceans, as well as seeds and plant material, sieved from the surface or just below rather than by upending.

Behaviour

Wary and often inconspicuous, it feeds in shallow water, usually in pairs or small groups. It springs from the water in a fast, twisting flight and migrates long distances at night. Males give a distinctive, dry crackling rattle in display, while females are quiet. Large flocks gather on the wintering grounds.

Sources

Photo: YedidyaPopper, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Garganey, Israel.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC730604, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/730604

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garganey

See also