Cinnamon Teal

Anas cyanoptera

The Cinnamon Teal is a small but very colorful duck, found in ponds throughout the Western U.S., and has been recently spotted in the Refuge.  True to its name, the male has a notable cinnamon-colored head and body, iridescent green speculum, red eyes, yellow legs and feet, and hidden blue patches that are visible when in flight.  The female’s colors are more dull, overall rusty color with heavy streaking.

These ducks prefer marshy areas and shallow ponds, reservoirs, and slow-moving streams, with emergent vegetation.  They forage in the shallow water, head partially submerged, filtering mud through their bill.  Sometimes other birds will follow in line behind the first or lead bird, taking advantage of any nutrients stirred up by the leader.  They may also forage on land near the water, and eat mostly seeds, plant material, insects, snails and small crustaceans.  The invertebrates are more popular with the Cinnamon Teal in the spring and summer months, when breeding females and growing young require a more high-protein diet.

The Cinnamon Teal is a western species and is the most common breeding teal in Washington.  During breeding, several males may court a female, making ritualized simulated feeding and preening gestures.  The male may perform a short flight display, which may even develop into the male chasing the female.

When nesting, the female will select the site for the nest and construct it by herself, usually very well concealed in dense cover.  The nest mostly consists of simply a shallow hole with some dead grass and weeds, lined with down.

The female will incubate an average 9-12 eggs for three to four weeks, without the help of the male.  He’ll stay in the breeding area during most of the incubation, however.  After the young hatch, she’ll lead them toward the water to begin to forage for their own food.  Unlike most ducks, the male can sometimes be spotted with his mate and their young.   The female, with occasional help from her mate, continues to look after their young until they fledge at about seven weeks old.  If danger threatens her young, the female may try and distract the predator by pretending to have a broken wing, to lead it away from her young.

Nearly all Cinnamon Teal spend the winter in Mexico and Central America.  Cinnamon teal are commonly sighted in the Midwest and eastern United States, and are often associated with a flock of blue-winged teal, most likely attaching themselves to the flock on their mutual breeding grounds.

Did you know?

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

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.

The oldest recorded Cinnamon Teal was a female and at least 10 years, 6 months old when she was shot in California in 2010.  She had been banded in the same state in 2001.

Photo Credit: