Speckled Teal

Description: Speckled teal are small brownish "female-plumaged" ducks with speckles. Their bills are blue-gray, with the darker color above the lighter. The head and neck are light grayish-buff finely speckled with black. They are otherwise dark brown above with paler edgings, wing speculum green bordered buffy-white behind. Their underparts are buffy-white, usually conspicuous spotted brown on foreneck and breast. A typical call of the male is a mellow "preep," but in display utters prolonged mellow rippling series of notes. Female vocalization is a gruff "quack" or cackle.


Breeding: Speckled teal breed in marshes or near shores of lakes in the paramo. They nest in grass, near lagoons, and are sparse residents on ponds, lakes, and cold wet bogs and found occasionally at sulfur springs. The southernmost mainland birds migrate more often and move to the seashore in winter. Pair-formation seems to be semi-permanent and birds are paired throughout the year. Nest sites vary considerably, from holes in trees, banks and slopes to on the ground among vegetation, usually not far from water. Double brooding can occur in a prolonged season and males often assist females in tending young broods.

Migrating and Wintering: Speckled teal are endemic to South America and widespread and common in the south, extending north in the lowlands to central Chile, Paraguay and southeastern Brazil, and in the Andes to Venezuela (Scott and Carbonell, 1986).

Population: A. f. flavirostris (Southern Mainland South America) >1,000,000; A. f. flavirostris (Falkland/Malvinas Is) 100,000; A. f. oxyptera (Central Neotropics) 25,000-100,000; A. f. andium (Northwest Neotropics) <20,000; A. f. altipetens (Northeast Neotropics) <20,000 (Rose and Scott, 1994).

Food habits: Pairs dabble and up-end in shallow water or stand in wet boggy areas with occasional diving.