Small game - birds

Spatula querquedula

Spatula querquedula (Spatula querquedula) is a relatively small member of the duck family (Anatidae), order Anseriformes. Weighs between 350 and 500 g. Body length 37–40 cm, wingspan about 63 cm. Pronounced sexual dimorphism, seasonal and age dimorphism. It flies quickly, lands in the water lightly and almost silently, takes off sharply and vertically. He rarely dives. The male in breeding plumage has broad white eyebrows. In other seasons it resembles the female, which has a black stripe across the eye and whitish eyebrows. Juveniles are like the female, but the body below is streaked with brown. The female is similar in size and coloration to the female of the winter tern, but the throat and base of the bill are whitish, and the eyebrows are well defined. The male makes a characteristic sound, as of a breaking tree: karr, karr. Relatively widespread in Europe, Western and Southeast Asia, reaching the Mariana Islands. Casual visitor in North America. It is also found in Bulgaria. It inhabits water bodies densely overgrown with aquatic vegetation and reeds and avoids wooded areas.