How to Identify aCinnamon Teal
Spatula cyanoptera · 15.3–16.9 in (39–43 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
Rich cinnamon-red head, neck and body with a dark back, red eye and a long black spatulate bill.
Female
Plain warm brown, very like a female Blue-winged Teal but with a longer, broader bill.
Male photo: DickDaniels (http://theworldbirds.org/) / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Second photo: Clément Bardot / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Field marks
- Uniform deep cinnamon-red on the male, with no facial crescent
- Long shovel-like bill
- Red eye on the male
- Powder-blue forewing patch in flight
Similar species
What it sounds like
A soft rattling chatter from the male; a low quack from the female.
Behaviour that gives it away
Females of this and the Blue-winged Teal are so alike that bill shape and length are often the only usable difference.
Habitat & range
Marshes, ponds and irrigated wetlands across the western states.
When you'll see it
Depending on where in western, southwestern and central North America you are, it is a summer visitor that arrives to breed and a passage migrant, seen mainly in spring and autumn.
What it eats
Seeds, aquatic plants and invertebrates strained from shallow water.
Did you know?
It is the only North American dabbling duck with a separate breeding population in South America.
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