Birds · Anseriformes · Anatidae

Gadwall

Mareca strepera

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

A medium-sized duck with deliberately unobtrusive plumage, greyish brown in the male and brown in the female. The breeding male has the back, breast and flanks finely vermiculated in black, black rump and uppertail coverts, and long, pointed silver-grey tertials. The diagnostic feature in both sexes is the white speculum, very visible in flight among the black coverts.

Weight

550 g – 1 kg

Size

46 cm – 56 cm

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

FreshwaterHerbivore Diurnal Bird Freshwater

45countries 88parks42same family

Fun facts

GeneralAn unassuming grey duck that steals food from coots and grebes.
Its epithet strepera means "noisy" in Late Latin.
Its closest relative is the falcated duck, and both are related to the wigeons: which is why all three were separated from Anas and moved into the genus Mareca.
It had an island subspecies, Mareca strepera couesi, which became extinct around 1874 on Teraina atoll, in the Pacific.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)
Habitat & environment: Shallow lagoons, reservoirs and saltmarsh
Gestation / incubation: About 28 days, with the female incubating alone
Litter / clutch size: 8-17 ochre-yellow eggs, usually in May, in a nest dug into a hollow among thick vegetation near water and lined with dry leaves, reed and down. The chicks are fed by the female alone and fledge at around seven weeks

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List; SEO/BirdLife (ficha y III Atlas: Lorenzo 2022); Asturnatura; Madge y Burn 1988, Wildfowl; Johnson y Sorenson 1999; Svensson et al. 2001; Linnaeus 1758