Facts about the brown teal/pāteke
Brown teal swimming
The pāteke's omnivorous diet, restricted annual range and mainly terrestrial lifestyle give it a unique ecological niche among waterfowl, somewhat akin to a wetland rodent, and it serves as a classic example of the influence of selective forces that operated on birds in pre-human New Zealand.
The pāteke were once widespread throughout New Zealand but are now rare and restricted to Great Barrier Island, coastal valleys of eastern Northland, and several other locations around New Zealand where new populations have been established using translocated birds. These sites include several predator free islands, Tawharanui (east of Warkworth), the Coromandel Peninsula, Cape Kidnappers and the Clinton-Arthur Valley in Fiordland.
The species has suffered an ongoing decline in numbers and range since the late nineteenth century.
There are currently estimated to be between 2,000 and 2,500 pāteke living in a wild state in New Zealand, making it New Zealand's rarest waterfowl species on the mainland.
Pāteke: features and ecology
- They now number over 2,000 birds nationally. The main populations are at Great Barrier Island (where approximately 900 reside), Northland (where around 400 reside), and Coromandel (where at least 300 reside).
- They are a small dabbling duck, mainly brown in colour with a distinctive white eye ring that makes them easily distinguishable from other ducks. When in breeding plumage, males have a green head that can vary from subtle to very strong iridescent green, sometimes with a white collar on the neck. When not in breeding plumage, both sexes look alike.
- Their habitat is within broad lowland valleys comprising of short-grass pasture, streams, wetlands, estuaries and associated riparian vegetation.
- They feed at night on invertebrates, fruits, seeds, and vegetation. These are generally found in damp or flooded pasture, lawns, drains, shallow wetlands, estuaries, and wet forest habitats.
- Pāteke nest in winter and spring in rushes, sedges or under banks.
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Brown Teal Online
An organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of Pateke.
Contacts
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