cinnamon teals, reifel bird sanctuary

The Cinnamon Teal, Anas cyanoptera, is a small dabbling duck from the Americas.

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.

Their breeding habitat is marshes and ponds in western North and South America. Cinnamon Teal generally select new mates each year. They are migratory and most winter in northern South America and the Caribbean, generally not migrating as far as the Blue-winged Teal. These birds feed by dabbling. They mainly eat plants; their diet may include molluscs and aquatic insects.