Bird: Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors)

Height: 15"

Description: Male is easily identified by charcoal head with large, white, crescent-shaped patch in front of eye. Body of male is light brown with dark spots. Wings and tail of male are dark with a white patch by the tail. The female has bright blue and green patches under her wing. She can be distinguished from the female green-winged teal because the feathers on the under parts are brown and mottled rather than white. Bill of both sexes is dark. Feet are yellow with dark webbing.

Voice: Soft peeping noises, the female quacks quietly. An audio file is available at eNature.com.

Feeding: Eats aquatic plants by skimming the surface of the water with its bill or diving in shallow water with tail straight up in the air. I've seen groups of twenty or thirty Teals feeding in one spot. When they all skim at once, it sounds like rain on the water.

Other Behavior: Blue-winged teals often fly in small groups. They are fast and agile while flying and the blue patch on the wing makes them easily identifiable. They whistle softly while flying. The female incubates the eggs while the male acts as a look-out. In the early winter, the male can be found at Wakodahatchee in his eclipse plumage. By January, the breeding plumage has grown in.

Click here for more information on the Blue-winged Teal from eNature.com

The Teals appear at Wakodahatchee in October and are absent all summer. They are much smaller than the Mottled Ducks that are year-round residents. I've had a number of people ask me, "What are those ducks that feed with their white tail feathers up in the air." Those are Teals. Male Blue-winged Teals are easily identified by the white crescent in front of their eyes. Male Teals dance for females and each other, as shown in the following pictures.