Marbled Duck or Marbled Teal
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The Marbled Duck, or Marbled Teal (Marmaronetta angustirostris), is a medium-sized duck. It used to be included among the dabbling ducks, but is now classed as a diving duck.
These are gregarious birds, at times even when nesting. Outside the breeding season flocks are often small, although large wintering flocks have been reported in some areas.
Distribution / Range
This duck formerly bred in large numbers in the Mediterranean region, but is now restricted to a few sites in southern Spain and northwest Africa.
In the east it survives in Iran (Shadegan Marshes - the world's most important site), as well as isolated pockets in Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iraq.
Its breeding habitat is lowland, shallow fresh waters. In some areas birds disperse from the breeding grounds, and have been encountered in the winter period in the Sahel zone, south of the Sahara.
This bird is considered vulnerable due to a reduction in population caused by habitat destruction. It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
Description
The Marbled Duck is approximately 39-42 cm long.
Adults are a pale sandy-brown colour, diffusely blotched off-white, with a dark eye-patch and shaggy head.
Juveniles are similar but with more off-white blotches.
In flight, the wings look pale without a marked pattern, and no speculum (= distinctive wing patch) on the secondaries.
Copyright: Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia.org.
Diet / Feeding:
Marbled ducks feed mainly in shallow water by dabbling or up-ending, occasionally diving. Other than that, little is known about their diet.
Ducks generally feed on larvae and pupae often found under rocks, as well as aquatic animals, plant material, seeds, small fish, snails and crabs.
Feeding Ducks ...
We all enjoy ducks and many of us offer them food to encourage them to come over and stay around - and it works! Who doesn't like an easy meal!
However, the foods that we traditionally feed them at local ponds are utterly unsuitable for them and are likely to cause health problems down the road. Also, there may be local laws against feeding this species of bird - so it's best to check on that rather than facing consequences at a later stage.
- Click here to find out which foods to feed them that will offer the nutrition they need to survive a cold winter and remain healthy
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