Bird Guide: Water Birds, Game Birds, and Birds of Prey East of the Rockies

by Chester A. Reed

CINNAMON TEAL

141. Querquedula cyanoptera. 16 in.

Male with the whole head, neck and underparts bright cinnamon; wings as in the [Blue-winged species]. Female similar to the female Blue-wing, but more rusty below, and the throat is tinted or quite dark, while that of the last species is usually light. These beautiful birds are very abundant west of the Rocky Mountains, but are of only casual or accidental occurrence east of the Mississippi Valley and sometimes Southern Florida. Their favorite nesting places are in fields of tall grass or clover, in close proximity to marshes or ponds.

Nest.—Compactly woven of grasses and lined with down; they lay from eight to as many as thirteen buffy white eggs, size 1.85 × 1.35; May, June.

Range.—Breeds in Western United States and British Columbia. Occurs rarely in the Mississippi Valley, Southern Texas and Florida.