A small duck seen on Japanese waters in winter. Breeding males have a chestnut head with a dark green band around the eye.
Females are brown, and males in eclipse plumage look similar to them. Breeding males also show a yellow patch beside the rear of the body.
Some plant seeds can sprout after passing through a Eurasian teal. In a captive experiment at China’s Shengjin Lake wetland, researchers recovered seeds from droppings and tested their germination on moist filter paper. Feeding by a small duck can therefore be connected with the transport of wetland plant seeds.
The study, published in 2022, fed three Eurasian teals seeds from eight wetland plant species. Each feeding combined 100 seeds from each of two species, and droppings were checked for intact seeds over 36 hours. Mean recovery for individual plant species ranged from approximately 3% to 24% of the seeds ingested by the teals.
When recovered seeds were placed under germination conditions, mean germination ranged from approximately 25% to 55% among plant species. These percentages refer to the recovered seeds. Some seeds survived ingestion with the ability to grow, supporting passage in droppings as a potential route of plant-seed dispersal.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Maintaining wintering wetlands contributes to conserving Eurasian teal habitat in Japan. Kayou Waterfront Park in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture, is a wetland facility created through national and municipal nature-restoration work along the lower Izushi River. Japan’s Ministry of the Environment describes Eurasian teal, mallards and northern shovelers staying there in winter. Such riverside wetland restoration provides an example of supporting winter habitat for visiting ducks.