Other Name.—Mud Teal.
Description.—Small for a Duck, being about half as large as a domestic Duck. Male: Head, with flowing crest, chestnut, an area around and back of eye to nape glossy green, bordered below with a thin whitish line; chin black; upperparts gray, finely barred with black; speculum green, bordered with black and buffy; middle under tail-coverts black, lateral ones creamy; breast and sides pinkish brown, finely barred with black, a white bar on side of breast; belly white or buffy, spotted, sometimes irregularly, with blackish. Female: Top of head blackish, feathers edged with rufous; sides of head and neck white, heavily streaked with black; upperparts blackish, all feathers margined with buffy; green speculum on wing, as in male; underparts considerably mottled—not barred as in male. Length: 14½ inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—A migrant from March 20 to April 20 and from September 25 to November 10, often found along smaller streams. Locally, as at Conneaut Lake and at Erie, it is common during the height of migration.
Green-winged Teal, Male
The Teals are our smallest ducks. Their size and remarkably swift flight make them comparatively easy to identify, save in foggy weather when the apparent size of birds in the field is apt to be misleading. The Green-wing feeds like the Mallard and Black Duck, by “tipping” in shallow water and plucking food from the bottom.
BLUE-WINGED TEAL
Querquedula discors (Linnæus)
Blue-winged Teal, Male
Description.—Size small, as in Green-wing. Male: Head dark blue-gray with violet reflections; crown dark brown; chin and sides of base of bill blackish; a crescent-shaped patch of white in front of eye; back brown, barred and mottled with black; breast white, buffy, or rusty, heavily spotted with black; lesser and middle wing-coverts gray-blue, forming a conspicuous color-area, particularly in flight; speculum glossy green. Female and immature: Crown dark brown, irregularly streaked with grayish; sides of head and neck grayish, streaked with black; throat whitish; breast and belly usually whitish spotted and margined with blackish; speculum glossy green. Length: 16 inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—A migrant from April 15 to May 15 and from September 1 to October 15, sometimes quite common. It may nest occasionally in marshy situations.
The blue lesser wing-coverts of this species are fairly easy to recognize, even at a considerable distance. It is relatively silent while it is passing through Pennsylvania; the Green-wing is more voluble. At Wildwood Lake, near Harrisburg, Blue-winged Teals occur with some regularity along a marshy neck of land which protrudes into the lake at the mouth of an inflowing stream. Here the birds rest quietly, feeding in early morning and toward evening, and flying about only when they are disturbed. They are usually mated by the time they reach this latitude in the spring.