Common Teal Sightings in Thika Sewage Treatment Ponds

Yesterday 17th January 2016 during the Water Bird counts organized by National Museums of Kenya,Ornithology Department and other lead agencies, we spotted  Common Teal(green-winged Teal) in one of the ponds,a small dabbling duck little larger than a Hottentot Teal,with a rather steep forehead and a short bill,

A Male Common Teal 

Male in breeding plumage has chestnut head with a buff -boarded iridescent green band from lores to nape:body greyish with white horizontal line along side and a creamy under tail coverts noticeable at a distance 

Habits- singles or small groups associate with other waterfowl,they feed waterside vegetation.Regular paleartic migrant in small numbers November to March mainly above 1400m on small ponds,streams and lakeshores in and west of Rift valley, including Lake Turkana

Together with Yellow-billed Ducks

In the exercise other water birds were also seen and recorded

   

Northern Pintail

Ruff

White faced whistling Duck

Sacred Ibis

Photos credit  @Mwangi wa Gitau