Ducks, Geese

Greylag Goose

Sexes alike. Grey-brown plumage; pink bill, legs and feet; white uppertailcoverts, lower belly and tip to dark tail; in flight, pale leading edge of wings and white
uppertail-coverts distinctive. Gregarious and wary; flocks on jheels and winter cultivation; rests for most of day and feeds during night, on water and on agricultural land, especially freshly sown fields. The Bar-headed Goose A. indicus breeds in Ladakh and winters in subcontinent.

Indian Spot-billed Duck

Sexes alike. Blackish-brown plumage, feathers edged paler; almost white head and neck; black cap; dark, broad eye-stripe; green speculum bordered above with white; black bill tipped yellow; coral-red legs and feet. Pairs or small parties walk on marshy land and wet cultivation, or up-end in shallow water; usually does not associate with other ducks; when injured, can dive and remain underwater, holding on to submerged vegetation with only bill exposed.

Knob-billed Duck

Male: white head and neck, speckled black; fleshy knob (comb) on top of beak; black back has purple green gloss; greyish lower back; white lower-neck collar and underbody; short black bars extend on sides of upper breast and flanks. Female: duller, smaller; lacks comb. Small parties, either on water or in trees over water; nests in tree cavities; feeds on surface and in cultivation; can also dive.

Common Teal

Male: greyish with chestnut head with broad metallic-green band from eye to nape with yellow-white border. Black, green and buff wing speculum. Female:
mottled dark and light brown; pale belly and black and green wing speculum. Most common migratory duck. Swift flier and difficult to circumvent.

Gadwall

Dull, largely grey-brown duck. Male has finely speckled grey head, heavier speckled grey breast, dark grey bill, grey-brown upper body, white belly, black rear; white speculum in both sexes diagnostic. Female has buff-brown head, orange-sided grey bill, mottled and scalloped brown body. Eclipse male similar to female, but paler grey and less mottled. Gregarious, but shy; sometimes in small mixed flocks; surface feeder, often up-ending.

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