Garganey Call MP3s
A true long-distance migrant among European ducks, the Garganey spends its winters in Africa and South Asia and is present in Europe only briefly each year. These recordings capture the drake's distinctive dry rattling call.
Also known as
Recordings (4)
About this species
A duck of the Anatidae family measuring roughly 39 cm, the Garganey (Spatula querquedula) is unmistakable — the breeding male sporting a bold white crescent eyebrow sweeping back from the eye. It seeks out flooded meadows and shallow freshwater marshes on spring and autumn passage.
The male's bizarre dry, crackling rattle has earned it a reputation as the strangest of duck voices. It takes small seeds and aquatic invertebrates sieved from the surface and shallow mud. Unusually among its relatives it is a summer visitor, wintering deep in Africa. Its far-ranging populations link the breeding lakes of northern Europe with the wintering wetlands of the Mediterranean and North Africa.
Legal use
The Garganey is listed as a huntable species under the EU Birds Directive (Annex II) in a number of member states and is also hunted in parts of its African and South Asian wintering range, but because it breeds and returns to Europe earlier and departs earlier than most ducks, many countries restrict or close the season around its main passage periods to avoid taking birds during breeding return, as required under the Directive's protections for migratory and breeding periods. The species' conservation status is assessed as unfavorable at the pan-European level even though the global IUCN listing is Least Concern, and hunting pressure has been identified as one contributing factor in some declining populations alongside habitat loss — so harvest rules tend to be more conservative and closely tied to migration timing for this species than for common dabblers like Mallard or Teal. Season windows and legality vary significantly by country and are easy to get wrong for a bird with such a short window in each range state, so confirm current local rules before hunting; see our full country-by-country disclaimer for details.