Baikal Teal

Male: Male Baikal teal have a variegated head displaying a black crown and hindneck with buff and metallic green patches on the face margined with white and black. The chest is buff dotted with black spots and the gray sides and flanks are vermiculated with fine black lines. A white finger-like mark extends from in front of the folded wing to the white belly. Long scapulars striped with black, chestnut, and buff drape over the rear of the folded wing. A green speculum, edged with white in the back and red-brown in the front, is displayed in flight. The bill, legs, and feet are dark gray to black.

Female: Female Baikal teal closely resemble their counterparts in green-winged teal. The principle differences are their larger size, a pronounced whitish spot at the base of the bill, and a brown-red bar edging the forward margin of the green speculum.
Breeding: The Baikal teal breeds in eastern and central Siberia. There are no breeding records of Baikal teal in North America. Female Baikal teal prefer to nest in grass and sedge tussocks near small wetlands and river deltas found in taiga and tundra areas and lay and average of 8 to 10 eggs.

Migrating and Wintering: The majority of Baikal teal winter in southern Siberia through Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and eastern China. Occasionally, birds from eastern Siberia wander to the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. They can be found in a variety of freshwater and brackish-water habitats, including lowland lakes, flooded fields and meadows, slow rivers, and estuarine marshes.

Population: Although believed to be the most numerous duck in eastern Asia in the 1940s, excessive hunting reduced the population to an estimated and endangered 40,000 in the 1980s. Over the last decade, populations of Baikal teal have increased dramatically. In 1998-1999 an estimated 200,000 birds wintered in South Korea, 20,000 in the Yangtze River Valley, China, and 10,000 in Japan.

Food habits: Baikal teal dabble to feed on the seeds of moist soil plants, rice, aquatic invertebrates, and small fishes found in shallow water.