Cinnamon Teal

How to find it

Look for single males mixed into large flocks of Blue-winged Teal in the Tempisque basin. The Cinnamon Teal is a rare duck there, so scan each flock carefully, bird by bird. Blue-winged Teal are abundant there and around the Río Frío area, so wetland trips to those places are where the flocks are met. Start with the males, since the deep chestnut body stands out. Treat females as a bonus, because in the field they usually cannot be told from female Blue-winged Teal.

How to recognise it

The adult male is the easy one. He is mostly bright chestnut, with a red eye and a black bill.

On the upper wing he has a blue patch, like the Blue-winged Teal, so the wing alone will not separate the two. The deep chestnut body does.

The female is far plainer. She has a light brown head and neck, a gray bill and brown eyes. Her breast and sides are brown with darker V-shaped marks, and her belly is white.

Her face is a little darker than a female Blue-winged Teal's, with a chestnut spot between the eye and bill. Both sexes have a long, heavy, dark bill. Across the species' range the Cinnamon Teal's bill is longer and wider than that of the Blue-winged Teal, which helps most when males have molted out of bright plumage and look like females.

Behaviour and diet

The Cinnamon Teal is a dabbling duck. Across its range it feeds in shallow water, taking floating plants, seeds and insects, and it also dives for aquatic invertebrates.

On migration, small groups of fewer than 30 often mix with other ducks, which is why scanning mixed flocks is the practical way to find one. In Costa Rica the reports are of single males among large flocks of other ducks rather than groups of its own.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica the Cinnamon Teal uses fresh or salty ponds, lakes and estuaries. It can turn up in almost any still or slow-moving water in the lowlands and middle elevations.

The place where it is reported is the Tempisque River basin, where it is a winter visitor. The northern population that reaches Costa Rica breeds from British Columbia to northwestern Mexico and winters south to northwestern South America.

When to see it

The 1980s reports of one or two males among big flocks of Blue-winged Teal were dated from November to February.

Similar birds

The confusion species in Costa Rica is the Blue-winged Teal (Pato Canadiense). The male Cinnamon Teal is easy to pick out by its deep chestnut body, but females are very hard to separate in the field. Look for a darker face with a chestnut spot in front of the eye. Across the range that spot is pale yellowish cream in Cinnamon Teal and a conspicuous white in Blue-winged Teal, and the Cinnamon Teal's eye stripe is thinner and does not reach the nape.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Spanish name on the official list is Cerceta Castaña, with Carraco in brackets. Carraco is a general local word for ducks, and the same bracketed word is given for Blue-winged Teal and Northern Shoveler. A variant spelling used in Costa Rica is Cerceta cataña. Elsewhere you may hear Pato Colorado in much of South America and Cerceta Canela in Ecuador.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican bird list classes the Cinnamon Teal as M, a migrant, and one checklist marks it as rare or accidental.

Photography tips

Scanning mixed duck flocks is the practical way to find one, since small groups of fewer than 30 often mix with other ducks on migration. Go through each flock slowly and look first for the chestnut males.