Cinnamon Teal

Anas cyanoptera

Order ANSERIFORMES - Family ANATIDAE - Subfamily Anatinae

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A small brightly colored duck, the Cinnamon Teal is found in ponds throughout the American West.

Cool Facts

• The Cinnamon Teal is the only duck with separate breeding populations in North America and South America.

• Unlike most North American dabbling ducks, the Cinnamon Teal rarely breeds in the midcontinent prairie-parkland region.

• The female Cinnamon Teal often places her nest below matted, dead stems of vegetation so it is completely concealed on all sides and from above. She approaches the nest through tunnels in the vegetation.

Description

• Size: 36-43 cm (14-17 in)
• Weight: 280-500 g (9.88-17.65 ounces)

• Small duck.
• Large light blue patches on front of wing, visible in flight.
• Male has bright cinnamon red head and body.

• Top of wing with a large light blue patch near the front and a line of green feathers along the rear.
• White under the wings.
• Bill black and rather large.

Sex Differences

Breeding male bright rusty red all over; female dull grayish brown.

Male

Breeding (Alternate) Plumage: Bright cinnamon head and body plumage. Dark rump, tail, and undertail. Upper wing with light-blue patch with white rear border. Back of wing iridescent green. Eyes red.
Eclipse (Basic) Plumage: Gray-brown overall, with rusty wash. Small white area at base of bill. Eyes red.

Female

Gray-brown overall, with small white area at base of bill. Bill dark. Light-blue upper wing patch with narrow white border. Back of wing mostly brown, with little green.

Immature

Similar to adult female.

Similar Species

• Ruddy Duck, the only other small reddish duck, has large white cheek patch.
• Female Blue-winged Teal very similar in appearance, but is more grayish brown, and has more patterned body feathers, a more patterned face, and a shorter bill.
• Female Green-winged Teal is darker brown, lacks white near the base of the bill, has a smaller bill, and lacks the blue wing patch.

Sound

Female gives loud, evenly spaced quacks. Male makes series of "chuk" notes.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from southern Canada southward to central Mexico, eastward to very western Nebraska. Also in South America.

Winter Range

Winters from southern Texas and California southward to Central America. Also in South America.

Habitat

Uses freshwater (including highly alkaline) seasonal and semipermanent wetlands of various sizes, including large marshes, reservoirs, sluggish streams, ditches, and stock ponds.

Food

Seeds and aquatic vegetation, aquatic and semi-terrestrial insects, snails, and zooplankton.

Behavior

Foraging

Feeds mainly on surface. Dabbles with just bill in water or tips up with entire head underwater.

Reproduction

Nest Type

A depression on the ground, near water. Lined with grasses and down.

Egg Description

Creamy white.

Clutch Size

4-16 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Covered in yellow down with a gray-brown eyestripe. Able to leave nest soon after hatching.

Conservation Status

No apparent trends in population size.

Other Names

Sarcelle cannelle (French)
Cerceta castana, Pato colorado (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Gammonley, J. H. 1996. Cinnamon Teal (Anas cyanoptera). In The Birds of North America, No. 209 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.