General

Green-winged Teal: Small dabbling duck with pale, gray barred sides and buff breast with a bold white bar down the side. Head is chestnut-brown with green ear patch. Bill is dark gray and legs and feet are olive-gray to gray-brown. Speculum is flashy green bordered with brown above and white below. Female is mottled brown with dark brown eye-line. Juvenile resembles female but has spots on the belly and lacks buff markings on uppertail coverts. Eclipse male resembles female but may have dull, yellow-green legs.

Range and Habitat

Green-Winged Teal: Breeds from the arctic regions of northern Alaska and Canada south to northern California, Colorado, Nebraska, and New York. Spends winters in southern states, along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, and throughout Mexico. Preferred habitats include marshes, ponds, and marshy lakes.

Breeding and Nesting

Green-winged Teal: These teals usually arrive at the breeding grounds with pair bonds formed. Six to eighteen creamy white, light olive or buff eggs are laid in a down-lined ground depression filled with grasses, twigs and leaves, located in meadows, open woodlands or brush, often several hundred yards from water. Incubation ranges from 20 to 24 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Green-Winged Teal: These teals have a broad diet including the seeds of sedges, grasses and aquatic vegetation, aquatic insects and larvae, mollusks and crustaceans. They are opportunistic foragers, feeding on animals or plants in high abundance. Typically they feed in shallow water, near shorelines and on mudflats.

Vocalization

Green-Winged Teal: Male makes a "KRICK-et" sound and the female emits a faint "quack."

Similar Species

Green-Winged Teal: None in range. In eclipse plumage, other eclipse male, female, and juvenile puddle ducks have longer bills and lack green speculum bordered with brown above and white below.