Garganey

Amber list

Spatula querquedula

A small, secretive summer migrant duck — the only duck that winters in Africa and breeds here.

Dabbling duck · 90 breeding pairs (UK)

Measurements

In most ducks the male (drake) and female (hen) look quite different. Study both to identify any bird.

Photos: Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Insects, crustaceans and seeds gleaned from shallow water and mud.

Dabbling (tips up, tail in the air) Small (teal-sized, under 45 cm)

Shallow, well-vegetated marshes and flooded meadows in lowland England.

A rare summer visitor breeding mainly in central and eastern England.

Arrives in April from African winter quarters and leaves again by September.

The male’s strange rattling "crek-crek" display sounds like running a stick along a comb.

Compare with close relatives.

Anas platyrhynchos

The UK’s most familiar duck — the ancestor of nearly all domestic ducks and the benchmark every other species is measured against.

Mareca strepera

A quietly elegant grey duck whose subtlety hides a feisty habit of stealing food from coots.

Anas crecca

Our smallest duck — a dainty, fast-flying dabbler that gathers in busy, twittering flocks on marshes.

Mareca penelope

A neat, round-headed duck of estuaries whose whistling flocks are a sound of the British winter.