The Garganey (Spatula querquedula) is one of the smallest dabbling ducks, barely larger than a Teal, and the breeding drake is unmistakable: a broad, pure white eyebrow stripe sweeps back over a chestnut-brown head, the breast is dark and finely speckled, and the flanks are pale grey. The female is mottled brown like a female Teal but slightly larger, with a clearer facial pattern and a pale spot at the base of the bill; both sexes show a pale blue-grey forewing in flight. The drake loses his smart breeding plumage early in summer and reverts to a female-like appearance.
The drake's call is highly distinctive — a dry, rattling "krrr-krrr", often likened to a comb being drawn through, given during the spring display flight — while the female gives a subdued quack similar to a Teal's. The Garganey is Sweden's only true long-distance migrant duck, wintering south of the Sahara and in South Asia, and breeds across a broad belt of Europe and Asia. In Sweden it is a scarce breeder tied to nutrient-rich, shallow wetlands in the southern and central parts of the country, with a small and declining population estimated at 500–1,500 pairs; it arrives late, in April, and leaves again by late summer. The nest is well concealed on the ground in dense waterside vegetation; the female alone incubates 8–11 eggs for just over three weeks, after which the precocial ducklings are led straight to the water. It feeds in shallow water on aquatic insects and their larvae, small crustaceans, snails and molluscs, as well as seeds and green plant matter, with animal food dominating the diet during the breeding season.
Read about this species in Swedish →