The North American Green-winged Teal, Anas crecca carolinensis, is the smallest of the Teal ducks seen in North America. It is yet another member of the Anatidae family and subfamily Anatinae. The male, as usual, has breeding and eclipse plumage and the female is mottled brown and marked in subtle ways to distinguish her from the similarly marked females of the Blue-winged and Cinnamon Teals.

The male pictured above shows the cinnamon brown head with the iridescent green patch behind the eye. This is one of the distinguishing characters for this species. Note that this patch can appear bluish or black depending on the lighting conditions. The white stripe at the shoulder is another character unseen in the other teals. The light colored rump patch and the grey upper body and tail finish the list of distinguishing characters.

The female, pictured here in flight, is less boldly marked. She is grey above and mottled brown along the neck and sides.She has a gray upper tail with light rump patches underneath like the male. Notice the black streak behind her ear which is reminiscent of the male’s flashier ear patch.

In the third photo, there are several Green-winged Teal in flight. Note the iridescent green speculum (shiny spot) on the trailing edge of their wings. This is the character for which they are named. It is present in both males and females. The speculum can appear deep bluish at times due to the way light is reflected off these special feathers. Can you spot the differences between males and females at this point?

Here’s the rest of the flock, how many males and females do you see? Are there any other duck species present?

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In the first image there are two female ducks and a male Cinnamon Teal, Anas cyanoptera. One or both of the females may be Cinnamon Teal but they also maybe Blue-winged Teal. If their heads weren’t beneath the water or turned so you can’t see their profile, you could look for the white patch of feathers found just behind the beak in Blue-winged Teal females. In Cinnamon Teal females, this patch is tinged with yellow if it is present and can be much smaller than with Blue-winged Teal, or completely absent. So, I refrained from calling them by either name. This points out how closely related these ducks are. They are in the family Anatidae and in the same subfamily Anatinae. They are found together throughout their range because of habitat and food preferences.

The second photo shows a male Cinnamon Teal who has mud halfway up his beak because he has been foraging there for food.

This image shows another male Cinnamon Teal with mud on his beak and forehead swallowing something tasty from deep in the mud. These creatures will eat water plants and seeds as well as tiny planktonic creatures they filter with their beaks.

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Two pairs of Blue-winged Teal begin their day of hunting for food at dawn on a cold March morning.

Blue-winged Teal are dabbling ducks which means they poke their heads and upper body under water to reach food without submerging themselves. This behavior is exemplified by the male and female in the background.

These ducks paddle along and dabble for plant and animal life they pluck or filter from the muddy bottom of the marsh. It’s an all day job.

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The above image shows a female and 2 male Blue-winged Teals in an atypical situation. They are walking on a mudflat while filtering breakfast out of the mud with their beaks. (Note the female has a bit of the blue patch on her upper wing visible. This confirms her as a Blue-winged Teal and not some other duck who happens to be hanging out with the 2 males.)

The second image shows the two males continuing to plow through the mud and muck filtering as they go. The beaks of the Anatinae have parallel ridges on the underside of the upper beak that are arranged to form a comb-like filter. They use the lower beak to push the syrupy mud through the filter and capture the plant or animal material they consume as food.

The third image shows a single male Blue-winged Teal as he is vigorously squirting mud from the side of his beak. Also take note of the “furrows” in the mud above and below him. Normally, the dabbling ducks are floating above their food source and we don’t get to see the filtering process since it takes place under water. What a way to make a living!

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Blue-winged Teal, also known as Anas discors, are members of the subfamily Anatinae, the surface feeding ducks. They are sometimes known as Puddle, or dabbling ducks and they make their living on shallow  ponds, rivers, lakes and marshes by swimming along the surface looking for food. They will dip their head and neck under the water to reach food, often times up-ending themselves. Only rarely, will they completely submerge. Thus, the term dabbling ducks.

Most of the members of the subfamily Anatinae are sexually dimorphic which means that males and females look different in terms of their morphology (physical characteristics). Males also have two sets of feathers, one which they wear during mating season and one which they wear during the rest of the year called the eclipse plumage. All of this complicates field identification as you might imagine.

In the picture above, you see a female Blue-winged Teal on the left and a male on the right. The male is in his breeding plumage and is easily distinguished from other ducks by the white stripe between his black beak and his eyes. Note the dab of grayish mud on his beak tip. The brown and white mottling of the feathers along the side and the white patch just in front the dark tail feathers are also useful characters. The male’s head looks black in this photo but can appear very dark blue when the light and angle of reflection is right. Notice that the tips of their tails are out of the water which is characteristic of all members of this subfamily.

In the second image, you can see a male Blue-winged Teal on the left and a female on the right. His white crescent in front of the eye and white rump patch are clearly visible. Both ducks have large patches of grey-blue color on the upperside of each wing. In brighter light, this patch can appear almost white tinged with light blue. As you might have guessed, this species is named for this character.

In the the third and last picture, two males are flying with a female between them. Note the colors under the wing in both sexes and notice the differences between breast and belly on males and females. Finally, most members of the subfamily Anatinae have a special group of feathers on the trailing edge of the upper wing feathers. This patch of feathers is referred to as the speculum which means a shiny or mirror-like surface. The feathers of the speculum in blue-winged teal are an irridescent green that you can see on the rightmost duck. In brighter light, the speculum appears as a shiny emerald green and is quite striking.

Blue-winged teal can be seen throughout most of the U.S. and Canada at different times of the year. They migrate through Texas on their way to Northern South America. Some of them over-winter in Texas, and sometimes they reproduce here too.
They are beautiful birds to see, and hard to approach without a blind or some kind of cover to conceal you. The ones I photographed in flight were spooked by me getting too close for their comfort. This is where field biologists learn about fight or flight distances.

If you love ducks like I do, you might like to read a book by Paul A. Johnsgard called Ducks, Geese, and Swans of the World. The 2010 Revised, electronic edition is available from University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries as a Portable Document Format (pdf) file downloadable for free. This is a thorough, solid reference with lots of ink illustrations and informative text. It will give some of you younger folk a taste of what scientific papers were like before the days of cheaply produced color photographs and digital downloads. Also, there are lots of other works by Dr. Johnsgard posted for free access. An education free for downloading. Thanks to Dr. Johnsgard and the University of Nebraska for making these available.

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