Until the early 1980s, the teal (Anas crecca) was the most common swimming duck species in Austria after the mallard. With fewer than 100 breeding pairs, it is now very endangered, as Birdlife reported on Wednesday. Increased recreational activities on bodies of water as well as the draining of wet habitats and changes in the use of fish ponds would, among other things, accelerate this development. The bird protection organization has named the teal bird of the year for 2025.
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The effects of climate change on the teal’s habitat and its quality are also likely to lead to a thinning of the population on the southern edge of the range. Birdlife is therefore calling for the restoration of damaged wetlands “to ensure the survival of Europe’s smallest duck”.
The teal, with its strikingly beautiful plumage, is Europe’s smallest duck species. In this country it breeds in low-disturbance, shallow still waters with dense bank vegetation. According to the bird protection organization, suitable habitats can be found in moors, small lakes rich in vegetation and also fish ponds. What is important is a muddy shallow water zone on the bank with a rich supply of food in the form of small creatures where the ducks and their young can look for food.
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Outside the breeding season, in some places in Austria there are large gatherings of teal that come from breeding areas further north to renew their plumage (moult). The lakes of the Seewinkel in Burgenland are of particular importance, where many thousands of birds can be found from August to November: around 23,000 specimens were counted here in September, a record according to Birdlife.
In order to be able to cover the high energy requirements during moulting and migration, the duck needs a landscape with low-disturbance, structurally rich, natural and at least partially shallow waters as “filling stations”. “Moors, swamps, natural lakes and rivers with extensive, natural floodplains have increasingly disappeared from the landscape in recent decades,” says Gábor Wichmann, Managing Director of Birdlife Austria. It is important to preserve the few remaining habitats, but above all to repair the damage caused by humans. The EU regulation on the restoration of degraded ecosystems offers the ideal framework for this, emphasized Wichmann.