Cyranid – a living jewel of spring fauna

Anas crecca is a living jewel of our fauna: the smallest, and according to many, the most beautiful of the native ducks. It is among the 13 species so far hunted in Poland, but also 4 covered by the moratorium on shooting this year. Since the legislature allows hunting, these unique birds should be common in our country, easy to distinguish from their protected cousins, as well as well known. Meanwhile, this is one of the less well-studied birds of the hunting policy debates. The gaps in knowledge are due to: the short time for censuses, low abundance, dispersal of sites, and strong habitat selectivity [9, 10].

Not as common as they paint it

According to Jantarski, former summaries in professional ornithological and hunting literature were as numerous as they were erroneous. Only passerine specimens were considered to be breeding in Poland or a given district. Birds recorded on carp fishing ponds, therefore in a habitat unsuitable for these ducks, were considered to be nesting permanently. It was also wrong to treat them as strongly territorial. Improving observation methods (the use of drones, on the one hand, and a return to voice decoying, as in old hunting, on the other) should cure the situation [6, 7].

Hiking, wintering

The cygnets return to eastern Poland together with the thawing of the snows, in March and April. More and more of these birds spend the winter in the western districts of Poland. Throughout the year they are encountered along the northern coasts of the Black Sea, among others. A biogeographical phenomenon remains their year-round presence in Iceland. The cold of the pole is balanced by warm ocean currents and hot springs.

The non-breeding song bird winters en masse in a wide swath of southern Europe, Africa, and finally Southeast Asia. Major wintering grounds include the Camargues marshes, the Nile Valley, the inland and offshore deltas of the Niger, the floodplains of the upper Congo, Lake Victoria, the Persian Gulf, the mountains of Iran, the central Indus Valley and Taiwan.

Although the cyranid can fly very fast, it travels at an unhurried pace. It leaves its wintering grounds from mid-February to late March, and does not reach its Siberian or Scandinavian breeding grounds until May. The prolonged migration time is associated with long grazing periods in southeastern Europe [5, 11, 12].

Appearance and behavior

The A. crecca duck presents itself like a bird of paradise against the background of, after all, impressive males of other ducks of Europe. It gladdens the eyes from the end of autumn to early summer. From June onward, the males of the cyranid duck resemble the females. The ladies, although camouflaged, captivate with the subtle drawings of their feathers.

Cyranid not bird, girl not people

I would escort her, because she won’t go by herself. /bis

This folk chant has adhered to this species for a reason – the non-birds fly swiftly and efficiently. Sometimes you can admire the aerial acrobatics of the whole flock. Their pace changes during the tooting. Ducklings try their best to move over the head of the chosen one. They are able to hover in the air. In Poland, it is the phenomenal flying skills of gyres that are considered the key to explaining their presence on the list of game birds. Shooting such an efficient and beautiful bird in flight, exceeding the speed of 100 km/h, proves the extraordinary efficiency of the hunter. Today in our country there is no tradition of eating these birds valued in the Middle Ages as fasting. Already the great naturalist of the French Renaissance, Pierre Belon, wondered how one could pay as much for a bony cyranid as for a large goose fattened for years? [11, 12]

Living environment

In migration they graze on rivers, lakes and farm ponds. For breeding they choose beaver lagoons surrounded by forests in our country. The cyranid avoids fish ponds as breeding sites, although it is eager to feed on them before flying off to moult. The hunting nature of A. crecca has made it fairly easy to obtain permission for destructive surveys in France. That’s how we know that parents feed on harder invertebrates from deeper water, while chicks prefer softer ones from the shallows.

The cyranid has proven to be an important disperser of many plants, as well as sedentary invertebrates. Through its digestive tract pass live oospores of brachiopods, seeds of sedges, grasses and duckweeds, among others, as well as the survival stages of brachiopods, bryozoans, bivalves or paddlefish. Hence the title of the scientific article on viscera more important than paws, referring to both the seed dispersal pathways and the culinary uses of the various parts of the carcass [1, 2, 4].

Reproduction

Cyranids are famous for their long courtship in the absence of the duck’s participation in raising the chicks. While rolling, they make a lot of noise. Each male is very active in searching for a mate. The nest is a shallow cavity, dug exclusively by the female. In May and June, the duck lays one egg a day, until it reaches the number of 7-15, and hard hatches them for 21-23 days. The young are typical nesters, i.e. immediately after hatching they can see, hear and strain food for themselves.

The survival rate of young is decreasing, as foreign as well as native predators are increasing. The number of specimens bringing out young was estimated in our country, in 2015, at 1300-1700 pairs. By comparison, in Poland, in the 21st century, the young were sure to have only 2 pairs of marmots and as many as 2-6 thousand pairs of loggerheads. The marmots were helped by beaver restoration. They have gained a lot of new lagoons near the feeding grounds [6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11].

Best places for observation

Migrating individuals of A. crecca can be found in many places throughout Poland. Birders do not need to be persuaded to go to fish ponds, river valleys or the vicinity of dam reservoirs. For example, on Dzierżon Wielki the first teal can be spotted at the end of February, and flights last until May, with peaks in February and March. Autumn migration lasts longer: from the end of July to the end of December [3, 6, 7, 11].

Caution: do not disturb birds during breeding and moulting! Mothers calling chicks can be encountered in high and transitional bogs inhabited by beavers, including in the Kielce Region [6, 7].

In the article I used, among other works:

1. Brochet, A. L., Guillemain, M., Fritz, H., Gauthier-Clerc, M., & Green, A. J. (2010). Plant dispersal by teal (Anas crecca) in the Camargue: duck guts are more important than their feet. Freshwater biology, 55(6), 1262-1273.
2. Brochet, A. L., Gauthier-Clerc, M., Guillemain, M., Fritz, H., Waterkeyn, A., Baltanás, Á., & Green, A. J. (2010). Field evidence of dispersal of branchiopods, ostracods and bryozoans by teal (Anas crecca) in the Camargue (southern France). Hydrobiologia, 637, 255-261.
3. Czapulak, A., & Betleja, J. (1998). Wintering of waterbirds in Silesia in 1990-1995. Birds of Silesia, 12, 127-143.
4. Dessborn, L., Brochet, A. L., Elmberg, J., Legagneux, P., Gauthier-Clerc, M., & Guillemain, M. (2011). Geographical and temporal patterns in the diet of pintail Anas acuta, wigeon Anas penelope, mallard Anas platyrhynchos and teal Anas crecca in the Western Palearctic. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 57, 1119-1129.
5. Giunchi, D., Baldaccini, N., Lenzoni, A., …Vanni, L. (2019). Spring migratory routes and stopover duration of satellite-tracked Eurasian Teals Anas crecca wintering in Italy. Ibis, 161(2), 117-130.
6. Jantarski, M. (2017). Methods for assessing the abundance of breeding Aythyini barbets and Anatini proper ducks. Ornis Pol., 58, 117-139.
7. Jantarski, M. (2022) Abundance and habitat preference of the Northern Boobwhite Anas crecca during the breeding season in northwestern Kielce region obtained by voice stimulation method. Nature Review, XXXIII(4), 77-93.
8. Johnson, K., Sorenson, M. (1999). Phylogeny and biogeography of dabbling ducks (genus Anas): a comparison of molecular and morphological evidence. Auk, 116 (3), 792-805.
9. Kruszewicz, A., Czujkowska, A. (2018). Ornithology not only for hunters. Volume I. Oficyna Wydawnicza OIKOS , Warsaw.
10. Panek, M., Budny, M. (2020). The situation of game animals in Poland. Monitoring results state 2020 . PZL Research Station, Czempin.
11. Wylegała, P., Ławicki, Ł. (2019) The capercaillie, tufted duck, little ringed plover, coot – population status in Poland and the impact of hunting management. Opinion for the IUCN Polish National Committee . PTOP Salamandra, Poznań.
12. Let Them Live! Anas crecca. https://niechzyja.pl/pechowa-13-tka/cyraneczka/