Smallest dabbling duck. Agile, with quick and easy take-off. Male with brown and green head with yellow stripes, grey body with a white horizontal stripe, and a yellow patch by the tail. Female is mostly brown with slim bill with orange base and no cheek stripe (see Garganey). Both sexes with green speculum with broad, wedge-shaped, white front edge, and dark primaries clearly visible in flight. Easy and quick take-off from both water and land, with rapid and changing flight.
Sound:Male: characteristic, short, highly resonant and metallic "plytt". A bit similar to Pintail, but higher pitched and lacking accompanying whistling sound. Female: various quacking sounds generally quicker paced, more nasal and noticeably higher pitched than Mallard.
Male:
Distribution:
Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)
Ecology:Birdlife ecology
Links:Observation.org Latest observations
Image search Flickr NB! May give other species
CCCC-photo:Koshyk, Licence,Link,
Sounds:Recorded by Bernard Bousquet,http://www.xeno-canto.org ,CC license