Green-winged Teal, Anas crecca


Green-winged Teal
An adult male Green-winged Teal in its beautiful full breeding plumage, above.


Green-winged Teal
The less flamboyantly plumaged female, just showing a flash of the green speculum that gives the species its name.  Females have evolved to be difficult for predators to spot, particularly when sitting on the nest, whereas male plumage is greatly influenced by sexual selection, the competition to be chosen as a mate by a female.


Green-winged Teal
And here is a male who has succeeded in being chosen. See a similar waterfowl copulation by a pair of Northern Shovelers here, with the male likewise holding the female's nape in his bill.


Green-winged Teal
A male in full breeding plumage out of water above, and another male still molting into breeding plumage, below, with the vertical white bar just emerging. In summer, right after breeding season, while ducks are replacing their flight feathers and so are most vulnerable to predation, males molt into an eclipse plumage similar to the female's camouflage. Then through the fall they molt back into their bold breeding plumage, completing this molt by mid-winter;  the transitional bird below was photographed in October, while the males on this page in full breeding plumage were all photographed in January.


Green-winged Teal


Green-winged Teal
The picture above shows a male "Eurasian" Green-winged Teal, formerly considered a separate species, but now recognized by most authorities as a subspecies, Anas crecca crecca, of the single world-wide species that also includes our familiar "North American" Green-winged Teal, formerly A. carolinensis, now A. crecca carolinensis. The main distinguishing feature, illustrated by the comparative photo below, is that the Eurasian male in breeding plumage lacks the vertical white bar behind the breast on the North American, and instead has a horizontal white stripe through the scapulars. Eurasian males also usually have a more nearly complete white or buff fringe around the green patch on the head, as better seen in the close-up picture above. The Green-winged Teal is known as the Common Teal in English-speaking parts of Eurasia.

Green-winged Teals
Males of the Eurasian, right, and North American subspecies of the Green-winged Teal. Eurasian Green-winged Teals are occasional vagrants to the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America in winter.

Green-winged Teal
Another close-up picture of our standard male North American Green-winged Teal in breeding plumage.