BIRD OF THE MONTH - Green-winged Teal

The little Green-winged Teal is the smallest dabbling duck in North America. Breeding males have a cinnamon-colored head with a green crescent that extends from the eye to the back of the head, and a vertical white stripe on the side.

Females and nonbreeding males are brown and have a cream-colored stripe at the rear.

In flight, both sexes flash deep-green wing patches. Look for them on shallow ponds and in flooded fields, and listen for the male’s decidedly non-duck-like whistle. They occur with other species of dabbling ducks, but they’ll stand out if you pay attention to their size and shape.

Green-winged Teals have closely spaced, comb-like projections called lamellae around the inner edge of the bill. They use them to filter tiny invertebrates from the water, allowing the birds to capture smaller food items than other dabbling ducks.

They are fast, agile, buoyant flyers and can take off straight from the water without running across the surface. These dabblers migrate from northern North America via all major flyways—Pacific, Central, Mississipi, and Atlantic—to reach wintering grounds from coastal British Columbia to as far south as Central America.