Only 100 breeding pairs left

Highly endangered: This is the bird of the year

Only around 100 pairs of teals still breed in Austria.

(Bild: APA Pool/BIRDLIFE/MICHAEL DVORAK)

Until the early 1980s, the teal (Anas crecca) was the most common species of swimming duck in Austria after the mallard. With fewer than 100 breeding pairs, it is now highly endangered, as Birdlife reported on Wednesday. The bird conservation organization has named the teal bird of the year 2025.

Increased recreational activities on bodies of water as well as the draining of wetland habitats and changes in the use of fish ponds are among the main reasons for the problematic situation of the teal.

Populations thinned out by climate change
The effects of climate change on the teal's habitat and its quality are also likely to lead to a thinning of the population on the southern edge of its range. Birdlife is therefore calling for the restoration of damaged wetlands "to ensure the survival of Europe's smallest duck".

Suitable habitats are becoming smaller and smaller
The teal, with its strikingly beautiful plumage, is Europe's smallest duck species. In this country, it breeds in shallow, still waters with dense shoreline vegetation and little disturbance. According to the bird protection organization, suitable habitats can be found in bogs, on small lakes rich in vegetation, but also in fish ponds. It is important to have a muddy shallow water zone on the shore with a rich food supply in the form of small creatures, where the ducks and their young can forage for food.

Larger gatherings in Seewinkel outside of the breeding season
Outside the breeding season, there are large gatherings of teals in some places in Austria, which come from breeding areas further north to renew their plumage (moult). The lakes of the Seewinkel in Burgenland, where many thousands of birds can be found from August to November, are of particular importance: In September, around 23,000 individuals were counted here, a record according to Birdlife.

In order to cover their high energy requirements during moulting and migration, ducks need a landscape with undisturbed, structurally rich, near-natural and at least partially shallow waters as "filling stations". "Moors, swamps, natural lakes and rivers with extensive, near-natural floodplains have increasingly disappeared from the landscape in recent decades," says Gábor Wichmann, Managing Director of Birdlife Austria. It is important to preserve the few remaining habitats, but above all to repair the damage caused by humans.