Eurasian teal

Anas crecca

Group: Waterfowl
Size class: Small (under 10 kg)
Family: Anatidae

Range

Europe
Asia

Habitat

Wetland

Range

Countries it is found in

124 countries

Afghanistan
Åland Islands
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Antigua & Barbuda
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Brunei
Bulgaria
Cambodia
Canada
Cape Verde
Chad
China

Range from:Wikipedia country bird lists, GBIF occurrence records — read 2026-08-05

Chapter 01

Overview

The Eurasian teal (Anas crecca), common teal or Eurasian green-winged teal, is a common and widespread duck that breeds in temperate Eurosiberia and moves south in winter. Over much of its range it is simply 'the teal', being the only small dabbling duck there, and it gives its name to the blue-green colour. It belongs to the true teals, a group of small Anas dabbling ducks closely related to the mallard and its relatives — a group that in fact seems to have evolved from a true teal. It forms a superspecies with the green-winged teal and the speckled teal.

Chapter 02

Identification

One of the smallest living dabbling ducks at 34–43 cm long, averaging 360 g in the drake and 340 g in the hen. The wings are 17.5–20.4 cm, giving a 53–59 cm span; the bill is 3.2–4 cm and the tarsus 2.8–3.4 cm. At a distance the drake in breeding plumage appears grey.

Chapter 03

Behaviour

Highly gregarious outside the breeding season, forming large flocks. In flight the fast, twisting flocks look more like waders than ducks, and despite short legs the bird is fairly nimble on the ground by duck standards. In the breeding season it lives in sheltered freshwater wetland with some tall vegetation — taiga bogs, or small lakes and ponds with extensive reedbeds.

On the table

Meat & cooking

Table grade 5 of 55/5

Sold as meat in a legal market
Has a named traditional dish
Published way to handle and cook it
Eaten in more than one country
No known health advisory

Traditional preparations

Roast wild duck: Wild duck is roasted fast and served pink; the breast is the cut, the legs being better braised or confited. Duck as food — Wikipedia
Salmis: The classic French treatment of wildfowl — briefly roasted, jointed, then finished in a sauce built from the carcass. Salmis — Wikipedia

Sources

Sources: Eurasian teal — Wikipedia — read 2026-08-05

Anas erythrorhyncha

Same genus (Anas)

Africa