Cinnamon Teal (Anas cyanoptera)
by Wanda Gorsuch

Common Names: red teal, red-breasted teal

Cinnamon teal usually travel in groups of only three to five.  During migration, flocks of up to thirty will often mix with other ducks.  The cinnamon teal is not as heavily harvested in the United States or Canada as many of the North American ducks.  This is probably due to its limited range and early fall migration. 

Identification

The dramatic breeding plumage of the drake cinnamon teal is hard to miss.  Bright rusty/cinnamon head, neck and underparts contrast with distinct blue upperwing-coverts and white wing linings.  However, in eclipse plumage during late summer and fall, he is a drab mottled brown that makes it easy to confuse him with the females.

Females, who are smaller than the males, are nearly indistinguishable from blue-winged teal hens.  In hand, the differences become more distinct.  Cinnamon teal hens have a slightly larger bill, plainer face and a warmer brown plumage.

Distribution

There are 5 subspecies of cinnamon teal.  4 of these subspecies are found in South and Central America, but little is known about these populations.  The one subspecies found in North America mostly breeds in the Great Basin and western intermountain regions of the United States.  Unlike most of the North American dabbling ducks, cinnamon teal rarely breed in the prairie-parkland region.  During the winter months, most of these cinnamon teal are found in Mexico.

Habitat

During breeding season in the intermountain West, cinnamon teal like freshwater seasonal and permanent wetlands.  These can include large marsh systems, natural basins, reservoirs, slow streams, ditches and stock ponds.  They like water bodies that have well-developed stands of emergent vegetation.

In the winter months, cinnamon teal in the southern extent of their range (e.g. California) generally remain in the same habitat that they used during breeding season.  The teal that migrate to Mexico are found in tidal estuaries, freshwater, brackish and salt marshes, agricultural fields and mangrove forests.

Food

Cinnamon teal are omnivorous, meaning they eat both plant and animals.  Their diet is mostly made up of seeds and aquatic vegetation, aquatic insects, semi-terrestrial insects, snails and zooplankton.  Cinnamon teal generally feed by dabbling in shallow water.

Reproduction

Pairs are mostly formed on the wintering grounds during February and March.  Pairs are seasonally monogamous, meaning that once a hen and drake form a pair they stay together for that breeding season.  However, next season they will mate with a different partner.

Nests are built near water in rushes, sedges and grasses.  Some hens may nest over water in dense bulrushes or cattails.  Once a nesting site is selected, hens will scrape a shallow depression in the ground an start to line it with surrounding materials such as dead grass.  Females add down to the nest from their own breast during egg laying and incubation.

Hens will lay one egg a day until 4 to 16 eggs are laid.  Eggs are generally laid in the morning.  Only the female incubates.  As more eggs are laid, they will spend longer on the nest. 

Tapping and peeping noises can be heard 24 to 48 hours before hatching.  Ducklings are led from the nest as soon as their down is dry, which is within 24 hours of hatching.  The hen leads the ducklings to water where they start feeding themselves from the first day.

Conservation and Management

The North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) does not have specific population goals set for the cinnamon teal.  However, joint efforts between federal, state and non-governmental organizations have been established for key cinnamon teal areas.  Since there are no accurate counts for cinnamon teal populations, it is difficult to measure benefits that active management provides.

Sources of Information

Bellrose, F.C.  1976.  Ducks, geese and swans of North America, 2^nd edition. Stackpole Books, Pennsylvania.

Gammonley, J.H.  1996.  Cinnamon teal (Anas cyanoptera). In The Birds of North America, No. 209 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists’ Union.

Johnsgard, P.A.  1978.  Ducks, geese, and swans of the world. University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska.