Green-winged Teal Anas crecca

Identification Tips:

• Length: 10.5 inches Wingspan: 24 inches
• Very small, short-necked, and small-billed dabbling duck
• Green speculum
• Whitish belly
• Juvenile similar to adult female

Adult male alternate:

• Alternate plumage worn from Fall through early summer
• Dark bill
• Rich rust-colored head
• Iridescent green face patch sweeping through eye and tapering to the back of head
• Buff chest with dark spotting
• Gray flanks and back
• Vertical white line at fore part of flanks
• Horizontal black line above flanks
• Buff outer undertail coverts bordered by black
• Black central undertail coverts

Adult male basic:

• Similar to adult female, but with duller face pattern

Adult female:

• Dark gray bill
• Pale brown head and neck
• Dark brown cap and eye line
• Dark brown back and upperwing coverts scalloped with buff
• White breast spotted with brown
• White belly

Similar species:

Adult male unmistakable in winter. Females, immature and eclipse males similar to most female ducks, but are very small, short-billed, and have a distinctive wing pattern that is sometimes visible at rest.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.

Above information used courtesy of United States Geological Survey.