Loading AI tools
Species of bird From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Cinnamon teal | |
---|---|
Spatula cyanoptera (male) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Anseriformes |
Family: | Anatidae |
Genus: | Spatula |
Species: | S. cyanoptera |
Binomial name | |
Spatula cyanoptera (Vieillot, 1816) | |
Subspecies | |
4 living, 1 possibly extinct; see text | |
Breeding Migration Year-round Nonbreeding | |
Synonyms | |
Anas cyanoptera Vieillot, 1816 |
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.[2][3] They are 16 in (41 cm) long, have a 22-inch (560 mm) wingspan, and weigh 14 oz (400 g).[3] They have 2 adult molts per year and a third molt in their first year.[3]
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.[3] Cinnamon teal generally select new mates each year. They are migratory and most winter in northern South America and the Caribbean,[4] generally not migrating as far as the blue-winged teal. Some winter in California and southwestern Arizona.[2] 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.[5]
These birds feed by dabbling. They mainly eat plants; their diet may include molluscs and aquatic insects.
They are known to interbreed with blue-winged teals,[2] which are very close relatives.
Subspecies are:
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.