Gargeny

Garganey  Anas querquedula

Etymology:

  • Anas : Latin word for Duck
  • Querquedula : Latin word querq or kark – any loud noise

Vernacular Names: Sind: Charho, Kardo, Kararo, Hindi: Chaita, Khira, Patari, Sans: Saachi hansak, Pun: Nili til, Ben: Ghang riob, Giria hans, Ass: Boga kanchi, Mani: Surit angouba, Guj: Kardio, Chetva, Mar: Bhuvai, Ori: Gendu, Ta: Panakottai cheravi, Te: Cheruva batu, Kan: Neeli pakshi

Distribution in India: Widespread Winter Visitor.

Description: Size of 37-41 cm. Breeding male has white stripe curving from above eye to nape, contrasting with black-brown forehead and crown, golden-brown foreneck flecked white, black-brown mantle to upper tail-coverts, with feathers fringed paler, tail brown-grey, under tail white with dark brown bars and spots, pink-brown breast barred black, vermiculated greyish flanks and white belly; green speculum with white line along front and rear edges, and pale grey blue upper wing-coverts; elongated scapulars striped grey, dark green and black and white; bill lead-grey to black, legs dull grey and eyes brown. Male has female-like eclipse plumage, but is brighter, has whiter throat and belly, and retains more colorful upper wing. Female has duller upper wing, whitish belly and distinctive striped facial pattern; bill greenish grey, eyes umber-brown and legs olive-grey to grey.

Habitat: It is found in swampy meadows, flooded fields and shallow freshwater marshes, pools and small lakes with abundant emergent vegetation, including in farmland. Winters in coastal marshes or lagoons of both fresh and brackish water.

Food Habits: It eats Aquatic invertebrates like worms, insects and their larvae, crustaceans, molluscs, amphibians, small fish, seeds, roots, tubers and green parts of sedges, grasses and aquatic plants. Some seasonal and age-related variation in diet, with molluscs being more important in spring, supplemented with smaller quantities of insects. In summer vegetative parts of aquatic plants become main food source, combined with insects and crustaceans. In autumn diet has shifted to plant-dominated diet comprising mainly seeds of pondweeds, smartweeds, sedges and docks. In winter, takes mainly wild rice seeds and grasses, while ducklings reliant almost exclusively on animal diet. Feeds by dabbling, head dipping and picking from surface; also upends in shallow waters. Mainly a nocturnal feeder, but also by day if undisturbed.

Breeding Habits: They breed in Central and Western Europe and South and West Russia during April- June. Nest is constructed by female. It is a depression lined with plant material down and some feathers, on ground among grass or reeds, near water. Lays a clutch of 8–11 eggs, laid at 24-hour intervals. The incubation period is 21–23 days, starting on completion of clutch, by female alone guarded by male; hatching synchronous; chicks are precocial and fledging in 35–40 days, tended by female alone.