Blue-winged teal
| Blue-winged teal | |
|---|---|
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| Male in Texas | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Anseriformes |
| Family: | Anatidae |
| Subfamily: | Anatinae |
| Genus: | Anas (disputed) |
| Species: | A. discors |
| Binomial name | |
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Anas discors (Linnaeus, 1766) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Querquedula discors |
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Querquedula discors
Spatula discors (but see text)
The blue-winged teal (Anas discors) is a small dabbling duck from North America. The scientific name is derived from Latin Anas "duck", and discors, "variance", which may refer to the striking face pattern of the male.
The blue-winged teal is 40 cm (16 in) long, with a wingspan of 58 cm (23 in), and a weight of 370 g (13 oz). The adult male has a greyish blue head with a white facial crescent, a light brown body with a white patch near the rear and a black tail. The adult female is mottled brown, and has a whitish area at base of bill. Both sexes have sky-blue wing coverts, a green speculum, and yellow legs. They have two molts per year and a third molt in their first year. The call of the male is a short whistle; the female's call is a soft quack.
The placement of the blue-winged teal or Anas discors in the genus Anas is by no means certain; a member of the "blue-winged" group also including the shovelers, it may be better placed with them in a separate genus Spatula. It is not a in the strict sense, and also does not seem closely related to the garganey as was for some time believed. Indeed, its color pattern is strikingly reminiscent of the Australasian shoveler.DNA analysis of this species has revealed it is very close genetically to the cinnamon teal, another American teal with blue wings.
The range is all of North America except western and northern Alaska, northern Yukon Territory, northern Northwest Territories and the northeastern area of Canada. Blue-winged teal are rare in the desert southwest, and the west coast. The breeding habitat of the blue-winged teal is marshes and ponds.
The breeding range extends from east-central Alaska and southern Mackenzie District east to southern Quebec and southwestern Newfoundland. In the contiguous United States it breeds from northeast California east to central Louisiana, central Tennessee, and the Atlantic Coast. The western blue-winged teal inhabits that part of the breeding range west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Atlantic blue-winged teal nests along the Atlantic Coast from New Brunswick to Pea Island, North Carolina.
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Wikipedia