Handsome, Elegant, Little Ducks… Chestnut Teal

By Keith Hutton on June 14, 2013 in Other

Ducks, geese and swans belong to a group of aquatic birds known as waterfowl. They travel and roost in flocks, and have flat blunt beaks, long necks and short legs with webbed feet. Hatchlings are cute, buoyant and downy, and can run, swim and dive within hours of hatching. Some ducks habitually dive for their food, some graze and others, referred to as dabbling ducks and including farmyard ducks, feed on the surface of the water and in wet mud, as well as upending in shallow water to reach the bottom. Teal are elegant, small dabbling ducks with two species represented in Australia. Chestnut Teal are mostly sedentary and largely restricted to Australia while Grey Teal are widespread and common native nomads that also occur in Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and neighbouring islands.

Chestnut Teal are handsome little ducks. Adult males appear dark from a distance or in poor light. However, in bright sunlight they show their true colours with a brown back, iridescent dark bottle green head that can appear completely black depending on the light, rich chestnut collar, breast and belly, and a prominent white flank patch with contrasting black under the tail. Females are mostly brown and difficult to separate from the Grey Teal with which they often associate. Both male and female Grey Teal are sombre brown in colour, and immature birds of both species resemble adult females.

Chestnut Teal are seen from Brisbane to Adelaide in the east and Esperance to Geraldton in the west, and they are the commonest ducks in Bass Strait and Tasmania. Mainly they have a coastal distribution in mangrove swamps, salt marshes, estuarine mudflats, brackish and freshwater lagoons and secluded inlets, but they also occur widely in smaller numbers on inland swamps and lagoons. They gather into flocks in autumn and disperse in spring to breed. Chestnut Teal are not as common in the Sydney region as Pacific Black Ducks, Grey Teal and Australian Wood Ducks but they are usually easy to see in picnic areas and Sydney parks where they readily become accustomed to people.

They typically feed together at dusk and dawn in and near shallow water or on recently covered mudflats by dabbling at the water edge, upending, filtering the surface water or stripping seeds from plants. Diet has not been fully studied but it is clear that both animal and vegetable foods are eaten, and the nature of the food items and ratio of plant to animal material selected probably depend on season, habitat, location and availability. Seeds, plant leaves, roots and tubers, insects, molluscs and crustaceans are all on the menu, and fresh drinking water is essential.

Recent surveys suggest Chestnut Teal numbers are increasing, despite predation by ravens, swamphens, birds of prey, foxes and reptiles. Teal as game birds are also legally exposed to shooters. Nevertheless their future seems to be secure as they are prolific breeders and this appears to be the overriding factor in their success.