Saturday, February 10, 2018

Blue-Winged Teal

The male blue-winged teal has a gray/blue head with a distinctive white crescent behind the bill, a light-brown body with dark speckling, a small white flank patch near their back rear and a black tail. Females are a mottle brown with a whitish area at the base of the bill. Both males and females have a powder-blue patch on their upper wing coverts, which gives them their name, a green speculum (secondary wing feathers) and yellow legs. 
This is my only photo that reveals the yellow legs. It also gives a good view of the white patch toward the rear. What is described as a gray/blue or slate/blue head appears to have a greenish tint in several of my pictures, like this one. 
This photo also reveals a greenish tint to the back of the head. Both are at Merritt Island. This provides a good view of the white crescent behind the bill. 
They are found throughout the U.S., in Florida only in the winter (non-breeding), most of Canada, all of Mexico and Central America and down into northern South America. 

At Circle B Bar Reserve.

This is perhaps my best photo showing a female, rear, with a whitish edge behind the bill. 
I saw them in Florida in January at both Merritt Island NWR and the Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. None of my pictures reveal the blue wing patches. 

1 comment:

  1. Very similar to the carved duck (by Maynard Sorensen) that we have in our living room.

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