Blue-winged Teal

Physical Features

The Blue-winged Teal is a dabbling duck. The male Blue-winged Teal has a slate gray head and neck, blackish crown and a black-edged white crescent in front of his eyes. His bill is black, and its breast and sides are tan with dark brown speckles, with a white spot on the side of the rump. Most of the upper wing coverts are blue-gray and the secondary feathers form a shimmering green speculum. The under-wing has white hue and the legs and feet are yellowish to orange. The male averages 40.6 cm/16 inches length, and 0.45kg/ 1.0 pound in weight. Female Blue-winged Teal have a brownish-gray head with a darker crown and eye stripe and a grayish black bill. Her breast and sides are brown, with olive brown upper parts, while her upper wing coverts are of a less vibrant blue and her legs and feet are dull yellow-brown. She averages 35.5 cm/16 inches in length and 0.36 kg/0.8 pounds in weight. Both males and females have an average wingspan of 58 cm/23 inches.

Habitat

Blue-winged Teal prefer the shoreline more than open waters and favor calm water or slow currents. They populate in inland marshes, lakes, ponds, pools, and shallow streams with dense growing vegetation. During winter, Blue-winged Teal are found on shallow inland fresh and saltwater marshes, nesting on dry ground in grassy terrain such as bluegrass or sedge meadows and hayfields. They will also use areas with very short, sparse vegetation and generally nest within several hundred yards of open water; however, nests have been found as far as 1 mile away. Blue-winged Teal are usually first to migrate from the Prairie Pothole Region to wintering areas in Florida, the Caribbean Islands, the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, Mexico and Central and South America south to Peru and northeastern Brazil. They have been spotted in the Galapagos Islands, Chile, southeastern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. They are usually the last to migrate back north in summer.

Diet

The Blue-winged Teal diet is composed of the vegetative parts of aquatic plants such as algae, duckweeds, and pondweeds. They also feed on seeds, grasses and large amounts of aquatic invertebrates found in shallowly flooded wetlands.

Meat

Blue-winged Teal meat resembles rare steak when sliced. It is succulent and has a delicate flavor that is more similar to steak than chicken.

Behavior

Blue-winged Teal pair in late winter or at the start of the northern migration in spring. Females can reproduce after their first winter, when they tend to return to breeding and natal regions and usually lay ten to twelve eggs. During incubation, the drake leaves its mate and moves to a suitable molting cover where he remains for a period of three to four weeks. Ducklings hatch in synchrony and spend less than a day in the nest, following the female to shallow wetlands. They can walk to water within 12 hours after hatching, but do not fledge until 6 to 7 weeks later, and are able to fly In 36 to 40 days. The male produces a slight, whistled 'tsee tsee' sound uttered both in flight and when on water, while the female gives a high-pitched squeak. The Blue winged Teal shares some characteristics with the various species of the Teal family. The female Cinnamon Teal is very similar in appearance, but warmer brown in color, less patterned, with a comparatively plain face and a longer bill. The female Green-winged Teal is warmer brown, lacks white hues at the base of the bill, which is also smaller, and lacks the blue wing patch. The male Northern Shoveler has similar wing patterns, but is larger and with a white chest, red hued flanks and a massive bill. Finally, the female Greater and Lesser Scaup bear white patches at the base of their bills, but lack both the thin crescent across a gray-blue face and the white flank patch.

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