Anas capensis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The Cape teal (Anas capensis) also Cape wigeon or Cape widgeon is a 44–46 cm long dabbling duck of open wetlands in sub-Saharan Africa. The Cape teal was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the ducks, geese and swans in the genus Anas and coined the binomial name Anas capensis. Gmelin based his description on the "Cape widgeon" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The naturalist Joseph Banks had provided Latham with a water-colour drawing of the teal by Georg Forster who had accompanied James Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific Ocean. His picture was drawn in 1773 at the Cape of Good Hope. This picture is now the holotype for the species and is held by the Natural History Museum in London. The genus name Anas is the Latin word for a duck. The specific epithet capensis indicates the Cape of Good Hope. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
Like many southern ducks, the sexes are similar. It is very pale and mainly grey, with a... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arusha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 4 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Lake Nakuru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 6 | Etosha National Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 7 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 8 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 9 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 10 | Addo Elephant National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 11 | Hwange National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 12 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 13 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 14 | Moremi Game Reserve | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 15 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Busch Gardens Tampa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Dresden Zoo | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Dvůr Králové Zoo | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 4 | Réserve africaine de Sigean | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 5 | Walsrode World Bird Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 6 | Zoobotánico Jerez | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 7 | Zoo Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Slimbridge Wetland Centre | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 9 | Parc animalier de Gramat | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 10 | ZooTampa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Cologne Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 12 | Attica Zoological Park | 🇬🇷 Greece | |
| 13 | Duisburg Zoo | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 14 | Cleres Zoological Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 15 | Valencia Bioparc | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 16 | Parc zoologique de Jurques | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 17 | Santillana Zoo | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 18 | Bioparc Fuengirola | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 19 | Bird Park | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 20 | Cologne Zoo Aquarium | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 21 | Snakeroom Serpentarium | 🇪🇸 Spain |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Cape Teal sighting in Hwange National Park on a given day, based on 21 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 199th most-seen of the 308 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May–July and September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Cape Teal in Hwange National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August and October–April, the lowest months. Those are among Hwange National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 150 mm in January.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cape Teal sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
11th of 15
Of the 15 parks where we can rate Cape Teal sightings, Hwange National Park ranks 11th at under 5%. The best odds are in Arusha National Park (Tanzania, about 50%), West Coast National Park (South Africa, about 40%) and Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cape Teal is recorded against all the birds logged in Hwange National Park (21 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
