The Puna Teal, scientific name Spatula puna is a species of dabbling duck within the family Anatidae. It was at one time thought to be a subspecies of the silver teal.
Puna Teal Profile
The Puna Teal is a dabbling duck of the Anas genus and is native of the Andes of Peru, Western Bolivia, Northern Chile, and Northwest Argentina.
In the wild, the Puna Teal lives in small teams of its personal type such because the intently associated Silver Teal.
The teal is a fairly, little dabbling duck, which could be simply spotted in winter on reservoirs, gravel pits, and flooded meadows. Watching flocks of this bird wheel by a winter sky is a real delight.
The Puna Teal is the most important of the three races of South American Silver Teal and is plentiful all through its range in Andean pampas marshes from central Peru to northwestern Argentina.
The female and male have very comparable plumage and no eclipse so they’re one other species that are significantly appropriate for a combined assortment.
They are a really long slender bird with a really distinctive long powder blue bill and I might assure that anybody seeing a Puna Teal for the first time will ask ‘what’s that duck with the brilliant blue bill’.
Puna are hardy and can thrive on grain and pellets however with this species pellets ought to kind the higher a part of the diet and ought to be accessible add lib particularly throughout chilly climate.
Small duck with a short neck. Males with a brown head, placing green patch which extends from the attention in the direction of the back of the neck and is thinly bordered yellow.
Grey bodied with horizontal white stripe alongside the body, green speculum, and creamy-yellow patch bordered by black on both sides of the rump. Females brown, streaked, and mottled darkish, with a green speculum.
Range
The Puna teal is resident within the Andes of Peru, western Bolivia, northern Chile, and excessive northwestern Argentina. It is discovered on the bigger lakes and pools within the altiplano.
Puna Teal Description
The Puna teal is nineteen inches (480 mm) long, comparable in size to a wooden duck. They have a black cap that extends to below the eyes. Their lower face and neck are creamy white.
Their higher tail coverts are grey, and their rear flanks are darkish brown with skinny stripes. The back, chest, and lower flanks are light coffee with darkish brown spots. Their bill is giant, light blue with a black line down the center.
The male has a Bluebill with a Blackline operating down the center, a Blackcap which additionally covers the eyes, and a Creamy Whiteface and neck.
The chest and lower flanks are light Brown with darkish Brown spots and the rear flanks are darkish Brown with skinny stripes. The higher tail coverts are Grey, the speculum is Green. The legs and feet are Grey.
The feminine is much like the male.
Puna Teal Behavior
In the wild, they live in small teams of their very own type or with the intently associated silver teal. Puna teal lay their eggs between April and June. Like swans and geese, each parent rears the ducklings.
They lay their eggs in long grass, not at all times near the water. The eggs are a creamy pink color of which there could also be a number of. The relationship between the female and male could also be a long time period.
Voice
Male with clear ringing whistle ‘treel’, much like Pintail, however, higher pitched. Female quacking feeble and high-pitched.
Diet
Small seeds predominate, however, Enteromorpha sp. and mollusks are additionally steadily taken. Occasionally feed on chironomid larvae the place accessible, although often throughout the summer season months. They feed by day the place they’re protected from capturing.
Teal are primarily herbivorous, though animal meals could comprise 25 p.c of the diet of some species such as because the blue-wing. In many species, flocks take off as a bunch and alter paths in unison.
Puna Teal Breeding
They often nest close to small freshwater lakes or pools and small upland streams away from the coast, and likewise in thick cover. The breeding Time is between November to January.
The nest is in-built long dry grass, not essentially near water. The number of Eggs is 5 to 7, Creamy Pink color.
Their breeding shows are delicate however pleasant to observe and breeding could be anticipated within the first season they usually often start very early, they are going to usually start in February and additional clutches could be anticipated all through the season that may simply prolong by to September.
Puna clutches are small, 4 eggs are kind of regular, and 6 whereas common is an excellent clutch, the eggs are pinkish white and elongated and seem barely more delicate than eggs of most different waterfowl.
Nest sites could be very different, they are going to fortunately selected natural cover if accessible and a favorite site is actually within the top of a clump of Pampas grass and this could be much like a site they could be selected within the wild.
If natural sites usually are not accessible they’re equally joyful to make use of nest bins, I feel there could also be a slight choice for a field with a big entrance hole and raised barely off the ground.
Incubation takes about 25 days after which the very fluffy gray ducklings emerge. They are significantly pleasant ducklings however as with the adult’s life should not be too difficult, if reared as a small brood they are going to thrive.
However the small clutch size implies that the brood can be small and there’s at all times the temptation to try to combine them with one thing else, this may be achieved however care should be taken, they actually do word address being bullied and could be simply lost.
As juveniles younger Puna actually profit from good quality water in any other case they will get moist feathers and this must be prevented. If Puna Teal gets moist feather they are going to in a short time get pneumonia on the onset of winter and can succumb.
While rearing Puna shouldn’t be fairly as straight ahead as most different waterfowl their necessities are nonetheless comparatively easy to offer and they’re a pleasant species to maintain.
Wintering
Widespread on wetlands with good cover, resembling reedbeds. A wide number of habitats, each coastal and inland, and often below an altitude of 200 meters, together with coastal lagoons and estuaries and inland marshes, lakes, ponds, and turloughs.
Status
The standing of the Puna teal is Least Concern, as listed on the IUCN Red List.
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