Cinnamon Teal - BirdForum Opus

Anas cyanoptera

Breeding adult male
Photo by Fulmar
Upper Newport Bay, Newport Beach, Orange County, California, USA, February 2004

Identification

Small dabbling duck
Adult Male

• Cinnamon-red head and body
• Brown back
• Red eye
• Dark bill
  

Female
Photo by Fulmar
Adobe Creek, Mountain View, California

Adult Female

• Mottled brown body
• Pale brown head
• Brown eyes
• Grey bill

Similar Species

Female very similar to female Blue-winged Teal

Distribution

Western North and South America. They are migratory and most winter in Central and South America, generally not migrating as far as the Blue-winged Teal.

Occurs as vagrants in the Caribbean.

Taxonomy

Subspecies cyanoptera
Photo by JCL
Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina, September 2009

It is usually placed in genus Anas, most closely allied to the shovelers and Blue-winged Teal. These species are sometimes separated into a distinct genus Spatula.

Subspecies

There are 5 subspecies¹:

• A. c. septentrionalium: (Northern Cinnamon Teal)

• British Columbia to north-western Mexico; winters to north-western South America

• A. c. tropica: (Tropical Cinnamon Teal)

• Cauca and Magdalena valleys of Colombia

• A. c. borreroi: (Borrero's Cinnamon Teal); possibly extinct

• Eastern Andes of Colombia

• A. c. orinoma: Andean Cinnamon Teal

• Altiplano of Peru and Bolivia to northern Chile

• A. c. cyanoptera: Argentine Cinnamon Teal

• Southern Peru and southern Brazil to Tierra del Fuego and Falkland Islands

Habitat

Marshes and ponds

Behavior

Breeding

Generally select new mates each year.

Diet

Dabbling ducks, the most important part of their diet is plants, but they make also eat molluscs and aquatic insects.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Wikipedia

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Cinnamon Teal. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 6 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Cinnamon_Teal

External Links

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