Garganey

Overview

Garganey: Small dabbling duck with black-streaked, gray upperparts, chestnut-brown mottled face and breast, pale gray flanks. White stripe above eye, running down neck is highly visible. Wings have pale blue shoulder patches and dark green speculum with white borders visible in flight.

Range and Habitat

Garganey: Native of Eurasia; breeds locally from Britain and France to central Europe, north to southern Sweden and more continuously from eastern Europe into Russia. Regular migrant in west and central Aleutians and other Alaskan islands. Preferred habitats include shallow freshwater lakes and marshes with abundant marginal vegetation.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Garganey was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current scientific name. These birds feed mainly by skimming rather than upending. A group of ducks has many collective nouns, including a "brace", "flush", "paddling", "raft", and "team" of ducks.