The beautiful marbled teal is, without a doubt, emblematic of the Mediterranean Spanish wetlands and a difficult target for bird trips. Hopefully, on-going conservation programmes are bringing back the species in the wild, giving us better chances to spot it.
Marbled teals are truly unique with only one described species in the genus (“monotopic”).
The Marbled duck (Marmaronetta angustirostris) is small sized, superbly pale-spotted, with dark eye patch, black bill and shaggy head.
Identification is straightforward. Males and females are similar and mostly silent. The species is omnivorous…
… feeding mainly on aquatic plant seeds but also on invertebrates, and picking items off the surface and head-dipping. Marbled teals are typically found in shallow, freshwater or brackish wetlands with abundant emergent vegetation (“Scirpus” Schoenoplectus and Bolboschoenus spec.).
World distribution of the Marbled Duck (Source: e-Bird).
A resident species –with a peak of activity in April– and one of the most threatened birds in the Mediterranean region and Europe. Global population estimates 15,000-61,000 individuals, largely concentrated in the Mesopotamian marshes. The Guadalquivir marshes (= Doñana) and El Hondo (Alicante) are the two most important wetlands for the species in Europe.
Spain’s breeding atlas established a population of 60 pairs in the period 2014-2018 and a loss of over 50% of its distribution range.
Digiscoping at 400 m distance
The species fluctuated between 20-150 pairs in the 1994-2007 period and 74 pairs were censused in 2020. As a result, the Marbled Duck is considered Critically Endangered in Spain (SEO/Birdlife). In the early 20th Century, it was considered the most abundant breeding Anatidae in Doñana (!), but decreased inexorably, with strong fluctuations depending on yearly precipitations, and even disappearing as a breeding species in the Guadalquivir Marshes during the 1990’.
Picture in the wild, picture in captivity…
Breeding at Cañada de los pájaros
A European Life project (https://www.cerceta-pardilla.es) is on-going until 2025. Moreover, Cañada de los Pájaros established an ex-situ breeding programme since 2008. In Andalusia, Marbled teals were released in Doñana, Fuente de Piedra, Guadalhorce and a few other localities.
Citizen science webs testify the gains
In a recent visit to Doñana, we detected 86 individuals of this incredibly rare species. Large gatherings of up to 200 (!) teals were favored by the 2023/2024 winter drought in Andalusia. We later visited the ex-situ programme.
Location of recent records in Doñana (source: Observation.org)
The citizen science platform Observation.org has noticed a strong increase of records in 2022 and 2023 in Spain, particularly in Doñana wetlands at Dehesa abajo, Valverde center, Brazo del Este, Veta La Palma and Laguna Tarelo.
Surge of observations in 2022 and 2023 (source: Observation.org)
A few links… The IUCN Red List (2022) Marmaronetta angustirostris ⚫ Salvador, Amat & Green (2023). Marbled Duck (Marmaronetta angustirostris. Birds of the World. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.martea1.02 ⚫ SEO/ Birdlife https://atlasaves.seo.org/ave/cerceta-pardilla/
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