Teal ducks are small, swift migratory waterfowl classified as “dabblers.” They feed by skimming the water’s surface or “up-ending” to reach food in shallow wetlands. Their natural diet is an opportunistic mix of plant and animal matter found in marshes, ponds, and flooded fields.
Primary Food Sources: Aquatic Vegetation and Seeds
The majority of an adult teal’s diet consists of plant matter found in freshwater habitats. These birds are selective feeders, consuming the seeds, leaves, stems, tubers, and roots of various aquatic and emergent plants. This vegetable matter provides the high-carbohydrate energy reserves necessary for daily activity and long-distance migration.
Specific seeds are a staple, including those from marsh grasses like wild millet, smartweed, sedges, and spike rush. They also consume the seeds and vegetative parts of submerged plants such as pondweed, wigeongrass, and duckweed. Teals use their specialized bills to filter these small particles from the water or graze on the plants directly.
Foraging often occurs in shallow water or on mudflats, where the ducks easily access fallen seeds and plant fragments stirred up from the sediment. They employ the up-ending technique, tipping their bodies head-down to retrieve food from the substrate without fully submerging.
Essential Supplements: Invertebrates and Insects
While plant matter forms the bulk of their caloric intake, animal foods provide the protein and fat necessary for growth and reproduction. This protein becomes a significant portion of the diet during the spring and summer breeding season. High-protein intake supports the female’s egg production and provides the building blocks for rapidly developing ducklings.
Teals actively forage for a variety of aquatic invertebrates, including the larvae of midges, dragonflies, and caddisflies, which they filter from the water. They also consume small crustaceans like amphipods and fairy shrimp, along with mollusks such as tiny snails and clams. This shift to animal matter is critical for ducklings, whose rapid growth requires a diet consisting of up to 70% invertebrates during their first few weeks of life.
The ability of teals to efficiently harvest these tiny organisms is aided by the fine, comb-like projections called lamellae lining their bills. These structures allow the ducks to effectively strain small insects and zooplankton from the water and mud.
Human Interaction: Feeding Practices to Avoid
Feeding wild ducks human foods, such as bread, crackers, and chips, is detrimental to their health. These processed items offer minimal nutritional value, lacking the protein, vitamins, and minerals required for a balanced diet. A duck that fills its stomach with bread instead of natural forage develops malnutrition.
This poor diet can lead to “angel wing,” a deformity where the wing joint twists, preventing the bird from flying. Beyond individual health, uneaten processed food pollutes the water, contributing to bacterial growth and harmful algal blooms. The abundance of easy food also encourages unnatural concentrations of birds, which can spread disease and attract pests like rats to the habitat.
For the well-being of the teal and its environment, it is necessary to avoid offering any human foods. The best way to support their survival is to protect the natural wetland habitats that provide their specific dietary needs.