Seasonal
Winter Wonders: A Beginner’s Guide to Our Teal and Wigeon
As the cold sets in, estuaries fill with whistling teal and grazing wigeon. Here’s how to tell them apart.
T
Toby Ashbridge
Field correspondent · 1 min read · 28 Jun 2026
Each autumn, the UK's wetlands swell with ducks escaping the freezing north. Two of the most characterful arrivals are the teal and the wigeon.
The teal is tiny — our smallest duck — and its fast, twisting flocks are a joy to watch. Listen for the male's sharp prrip whistle.
Wigeon, by contrast, graze like geese and whistle a dreamy whee-oo across the marsh at dusk.
