Bird Identification

Blue-winged Teal

Anas discors L 15 ½" (39cm)

Illustration by Julie Zickefoose. Listen to a blue-winged teal.

Ranging slightly south of the green-winged teal, the blue-winged teal is an inch and a half longer and about an ounce heavier, but it has the same wingspan, giving it a somewhat chunkier, less long-winged look. Breeding males have a dark slate gray head that often shows a distinct bluish cast. The front of the head is marked with a very distinctive white crescent, covering the area from the bill to the eye, extending down to the chin, and running up and above the eye, then tapering to a thin line behind it. The sides are a rich beige, with numerous small black dots.

Females are classic dabblers in appearance, but have a very well defined black eyeline, and white eye crescents. Their sides are rather heavily patterned, with prominent pale edges to the darker feathers. Overall, they are quite gray in tone, lacking much of the brown found on most female puddle ducks.

Blue-winged teals breed over much of North America, avoiding the Arctic, the southwest, southeast, and the Appalachian regions. They winter through much of the Deep South and around the Gulf of Mexico, across southern Texas and into southern California.

The female voice is coarse and high, less nasal than the green-winged. Courting males give a thin, high whistle, pwis or peeew, sometimes a nasal paay.