cinnamon teal

{{short description|Species of bird}}

{{Speciesbox

| name = Cinnamon teal

| image = Sarcelle cannelle (Spatula cyanoptera).jpg

| image_caption = Male

| image2 = Anas_cyanoptera_2.jpg

| image2_caption = Female

| status = LC

| status_system = IUCN3.1

| status_ref = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2016 |title=Spatula cyanoptera |volume=2016 |page=e.T22680233A92851668 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22680233A92851668.en |access-date=12 November 2021}}

| genus = Spatula

| species = cyanoptera

| authority = (Vieillot, 1816)

| subdivision_ranks = Subspecies

| subdivision = 4 living, 1 possibly extinct; see text

| synonyms = Anas cyanoptera Vieillot, 1816

| range_map = Spatula cyanoptera map.svg

|range_map_caption={{legend|#FF7F2A|Breeding}}{{legend|#FFDD55|Migration}}{{legend|#7137C8|Year-round}}{{legend|#5F8DD3|Nonbreeding}}

}}

{{birdsong|url=https://xeno-canto.org/species/Spatula-cyanoptera|species=Cinnamon Teal}}

The cinnamon teal (Spatula cyanoptera) is a species of duck found in western North and South America. It is a small dabbling duck, with bright reddish plumage on the male and duller brown plumage on the female. It lives in marshes and ponds, and feeds mostly on plants. The cinnamon teal duck is closely related to the north american dabbling duck.(Wilson et al.)

Description

The adult male has a cinnamon-red head and body with a brown back, a red eye and a dark bill. The adult female has a mottled brown body, a pale brown head, brown eyes and a grey bill and is very similar in appearance to a female blue-winged teal; however, its overall color is richer, the lores, eye line, and eye ring are less distinct. Its bill is longer and more spatulate. Male juvenile resembles a female cinnamon or blue-winged teal but their eyes are red.Dunn, J (2006) They are {{convert|16|in|cm|abbr=on}} long, have a {{convert|22|in|adj=on}} wingspan, and weigh {{convert|14|oz|g|abbr=on}}.Floyd T (2008) They have 2 adult molts per year and a third molt in their first year.

File:Anas cyanoptera1.jpg|Female Spatula cyanoptera septentrionalium

File:Cinnamon Teal Pair.jpg|Male (left) and female

File:Cinnamon Teal male RWD2.jpg|Male

Habits and Lifestyle

The Cinnamon Teal Duck is an aquatic bird, but it can also run and walk on land to catch certain prey like little bugs and insects. When they aren’t skimming the water or the land for bugs, they sleep. The females sleep together in a huddle, while the males stay awake and alert to protect the females. Ducks usually make a loud quacking sound, but the Cinnamon Teal is a quieter duck. Females will make a loud “quack” when needed to and the males will produce a nasal, whistling song.

Distribution

Their breeding habitat is marshes and ponds in western United States and extreme southwestern Canada, and are rare visitors to the east coast of the United States. One young male duck was spotted in Grimsby, Ontario, and became a tourist attraction due to its rarity outside of western Canada.{{cite web |last1=Chandler |first1=Justin |title=Wayward duck in Niagara draws mad rush of birders looking to photograph the 'mega-rarity' |url=https://www.cbc.ca/1.7327330 |website=CBC News |access-date=19 September 2024}} Cinnamon teal generally select new mates each year. They are migratory and most winter in northern South America and the Caribbean,Herrera et al. (2006) generally not migrating as far as the blue-winged teal. Some winter in California and southwestern Arizona. Two subspecies of cinnamon teal reside within the Andes of South America. The smaller sized S. c. cyanoptera is widespread within low elevations (<1000m) such as the coast of Peru and southern Argentina, whereas the larger size subspecies S. c. orinomus occupies elevations of 3500–4600 meters in the central Andes.{{Cite journal|last1=Wilson|first1=Robert E.|last2=Peters|first2=Jeffrey L.|last3=McCracken|first3=Kevin G.|title=Genetic and Phenotypic Divergence Between Low- and High-Altitude Populations of Two Recently Diverged Cinnamon Teal Subspecies|date=2012-08-10|journal=Evolution|language=en|volume=67|issue=1|pages=170–184|doi=10.1111/j.1558-5646.2012.01740.x|pmid=23289570|s2cid=8378355|issn=0014-3820}}

Behavior

Cinnamon Teal ducks are dabbling ducks which mean they take most of their food at or near the surface by rapidly opening and closing the bill to take seeds, zooplankton, and insects. They can also feed like Northern Shovelers following each other in tight groups as they slowly feed across on area. Many of them eat plants, seeds an shoots of marsh grasses. A small portion of their diet is snails, beetles, dragonflies, water fleas, and many types of flies. They mainly eat plants; their diet may also include molluscs and aquatic insects.{{cite book |author1=Alexander Campbell Martin |author2=Herbert Spencer Zim |author3=Arnold L. Nelson |year=1961 |title=American Wildlife & Plants: A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits: The Use of Trees, Shrubs, Weeds, and Herbs by Birds and Mammals of the United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Srcs-QkT0v0C&pg=PA63 |publisher=Courier Corporation |pages=63–64 |isbn=978-0-486-20793-3 }}

Taxonomy

They are known to interbreed with blue-winged teals, which are very close relatives.

Subspecies are:

References

{{Reflist}}

Works cited

  • Clements, James (2007). [http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4566 The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World]. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
  • Dunn, J. & Alderfer, J. (2006) National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America 5th ed.
  • Floyd, T (2008) Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America. New York: HarperCollins.
  • Herrera, Néstor; Rivera, Roberto; Ibarra Portillo, Ricardo & Rodríguez, Wilfredo (2006). [http://www.sao.org.co/publicaciones/boletinsao/01-Herrera.etal.RecordsSalvador.pdf "Nuevos registros para la avifauna de El Salvador"] ("New records for the avifauna of El Salvador") (Spanish with English abstract). Boletín de la Sociedad Antioqueña de Ornitología 16(2): 1–19.