The gadwall (Mareca strepera) is a medium-to-large duck, with males measuring between 46 and 56 cm in length, a wingspan of 78 to 90 cm and a weight of close to a kilogram.
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Aves |
| Order | Anseriformes |
| Family | Anatidae |
| Genus | Mareca |
| Species | Mareca strepera |
The gadwall (Mareca strepera) is a medium-to-large duck, with males measuring between 46 and 56 cm in length, a wingspan of 78 to 90 cm and a weight of close to a kilogram. The male has discreet, greyish-brown plumage, with the back and flanks finely vermiculated and the breast marked with pale and dark crescents; in flight, a very visible white speculum edged with black and chestnut stands out. The female has mottled brown plumage, with a greyish head and a paler neck and belly.
It breeds in northern Europe, Asia and North America, south of the Arctic Circle, and in the Old World it extends from central Europe and the Caucasus to north-eastern China, Japan and Kamchatka. In winter, North American populations migrate as far as Central America, while European ones winter further south on the continent. It inhabits open wetlands in grassland or steppe areas, marshes with dense aquatic vegetation, and also brackish estuaries.
It feeds on the surface of the water, sometimes submerging its head. Its diet is mainly vegetable, based on the leaves and roots of rushes and other aquatic plants, supplemented with small molluscs, insects and worms, especially during the breeding season.
It lays a single clutch a year, between May and August, of 8 to 12 pinkish-white eggs, which the female incubates alone for 26 to 28 days.
The gadwall is a fairly quiet species except during courtship, and its closest relative is the northern pintail. Its range in North America appears to have been expanding eastwards in recent decades.
