tags: Green-winged Teal, Anas crecca, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Female Green-winged Teal, Anas crecca, photographed at Arthur Storey Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 5 December 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Can you tell me the sex as well as the species for this individual?
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Life Science
Education
Comments
Green-winged. Teal (female) - bill shape seem right for the species. I would expect a female Blue-winged Teal to have a larger bill and a pale patch at the base of the bill.
Posted by: Michael | December 10, 2009 10:33 AM
I think you are correct Michael, a female Green-winged Teal, Anas carolinensis: dark grey bill; pale brown head and neck; dark brown cap and eye line; dark brown back and upperwing coverts scalloped with buff- the smaller bill and lack of white at the base of the bill eliminate both the Blue-winged and Cinnamon Teals.
Taxonomically many sources still list the Green-winged Teal as a subspecies of the Common Teal- Anas crecca carolinensis, and the AOU is currently reviewing it's own classification with research showing that A. carolinensis was more closely related to A. flavirostris (Speckled Teal) than either was to Old World A. crecca, but both the IUCN and Birdlife International agree with it's designation as a separate species as noted above (and even the Blue-winged Teal is now no longer considered really a teal but a shoveler that should be moved to the genus Spatula).
Posted by: David | December 10, 2009 6:03 PM
Again, an additional field mark to note -- the upper part of the undertail coverts is unmarked buff -- in males this would be outlined in black. Other small ducks don't show this mark.
Posted by: psweet | December 10, 2009 9:42 PM