Until the early 1980s, the teal (Anas crecca) was the most common swimming duck species in Austria after the mallard. With fewer than 100 breeding pairs, the species is now critically endangered, as Birdlife reported on Wednesday. The bird protection organization has declared the teal bird of the year 2025.
Increased recreational activities on water bodies, as well as the draining of wet habitats and changes in the use of fishponds are among the main reasons for the teal’s problematic situation.
The population has been decimated by climate change
The effects of climate change on teal habitat and quality are also likely to result in population thinning at the southern edge of its range. Birdlife is therefore calling for the restoration of damaged wetlands “to ensure the survival of Europe’s smallest duck”.
Suitable habitats are becoming increasingly smaller
With its strikingly beautiful plumage, the teal is the smallest duck species in Europe. In this country the species breeds in little disturbed, shallow, stagnant waters with dense riparian vegetation. According to the bird protection organization, suitable habitats can be found in heathlands, small lakes with lots of vegetation, but also in fish ponds. What is important is a muddy shallow water zone on the bank with a rich food supply in the form of small animals where the ducks and their young can look for food.
Larger gatherings in the Seewinkel outside the breeding season
Outside the breeding season, in some places in Austria there are large gatherings of teals that come from breeding areas further north to renew their plumage (moult). Of particular interest are the Seewinkel lakes in Burgenland, where many thousands of birds can be found between August and November: around 23,000 individuals were counted here in September, a record according to Birdlife.
In order to meet the high energy needs during moulting and migration, the duck needs a landscape with low-disruption, structured, natural and at least partly shallow waters as “filling stations”. “Heaths, marshes, natural lakes and rivers with extensive natural floodplains have increasingly disappeared from the landscape in recent decades,” says Gábor Wichmann, Managing Director of Birdlife Austria. It is important to preserve the few remaining habitats, but especially to repair the damage caused by humans.
Source: Krone
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