Knäkente Autonomous Community of the Basque Country

The Garganey breeds in shallow, vegetation-rich standing waters, wet meadows, flooded lowlands, reedy margins and structurally diverse drainage ditches. It avoids deep open lakes and prefers habitats with dense bankside and aquatic vegetation. In Central Europe it occurs as a rare and locally concentrated breeding bird.

Among the native dabbling ducks the Garganey is an unusually committed long-distance migrant. It vacates its breeding range entirely and winters in the wetlands of West Africa, especially in the inland deltas of the Senegal and the Niger. This pronounced migration strategy makes the species vulnerable to habitat loss along the entire flyway.

The German breeding population has shown a long-term decline. The main drivers are the loss of extensively managed wet meadows, drainage of lowlands, agricultural intensification and the disappearance of near-natural floodplains. The Garganey is most easily confused with the smaller Eurasian Teal: Garganeys are slightly larger and slimmer, drakes in breeding plumage are unmistakable thanks to the white supercilium, and females can be separated from Teal and other dabbling ducks by their more contrasting head pattern and paler blue-grey forewing.