Page 9 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #10
P. 9
WILDOCTOBER
4 | TEAL ON RADIO
Fresh feathers TWEET OF
Male ducks spend midsummer looking THE DAY
rather dowdy. Before moulting their all- Weekdays at 05.58
important wing feathers, which renders
them flightless, the birds adopt a brown,
female-like plumage known as ‘eclipse’ to
hide them from foxes and other predators.
But now their moult is complete and the
drakes are once again resplendent. Male
teal in fresh breeding colours are some
of our most handsome wildfowl – bottle-
green eye patches provide a stunning
contrast with chestnut-brown heads.
They are also the smallest British ducks,
weighing only a third or quarter as much
as the much chunkier mallards.
TOP TIP Listen to a teal’s whistle at
xeno-canto.org
