Baikal Teal

Few birds can match the beauty of drake Baikal Teal (Anas Formosa) that appear hand painted. Their Latin name Formosa means finely formed or beautiful duck. Also known as Spectacled or Formosa Teal, the gorgeous ducks are named after the deepest lake on the planet Lake Baikal in Siberia, even though the great lake is not a stronghold. The elaborate, exquisite drake’s head pattern must be viewed at close range to be the fully appreciated, since no written description can do justice to the stunning pattern of green, buff, black and white that adorns the face and slight crest. Molting into eclipse plumage much later than most dabblers, nuptial plumage generally appear in October. Males remain dull for about three months because the head and neck feathers are bordered with dull gray that gradually abrades to reveals the full brilliance of the unique ornate plumage in January or February. Females Baikal Teal (Anas Formosa) cheeks are adorned with distinct round, white spots. Normally relatively silent for much of the year, this changes drastically during the reproductive season, when the characteristic rapid, hattering or growling quacks of female are audible from many of yards away. Essentially nocturnal foragers, Baikal Teals (Anas Formosa) are fond of small acorns, and winter flocks capitalize on crop and stubble fields. When feedings in fields, ducks at the rear of flocks continually leapfrog to the front to reach unexploited areas. Foraging almost in dry rice fields on waste grain at major South Korean staging sites, the teal are also attracted to Russian roads at night to take advantages of soybeans spilled from trucks. Females nest close to water under shrubs and grass, or in small cavities. Nesting begins in May, with drakes probably forsaking their mates prior to hatching to molt collectively at sites not far from the breeding grounds.