Blue-winged Teal, Spatula discors

Blue-winged Teal, Spatula discors, Male and Male and Female. Birds Photographed within the San José del Cabo estuary, Baja California Sur, March 2013. Photographs courtesy of Carol Snow, Del Mar, California.

Blue-winged Teal, Spatula discors, Male, Female and Male and Female. Birds photographed in the greater Mexico City area, March 2021. Photographs and identification courtesy of Marina Sutormina, Stockholm, Sweden.

Blue-winged Teal, Spatula discors, Male. Bird photographed in the greater Cozumel area, Quintana Roo, March 2021. Photograph and identification courtesy of Marina Sutormina, Stockholm, Sweden.

Blue-winged Teal, Spatula discors, Eclipse Plummage. Photograph taken in rural Baynorillo, Sonora, October 2021. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

The Blue-winged Teal, Spatula discors, is a dabbling duck and a member of the Anatidae Family of Duck, Geese and Waterfowl, which has one hundred seventy-four members placed in fifty-three genera, and one of ten global species of the Spatula Genus. They are known in Mexico as cerceta aliazul.

The Blue-winged Teal is mid-sized in stature. The sexes are slightly dimorphic and strongly dichormatic. They have a large chalky blue patch on their upperwing which is brightest in males. Breeding males have a grayish head with large white crescent in front of eye bordering base of bill; cinnamon-buffy underparts densely spotted with black; a green speculum; bold white rear border to the blue wing-patch; a rounded white patch on rear flank behind legs; and orange legs and feet. The female body plumage is mottled brown with whitish patch at base of bill with a dark line through eye, a small whitish crescent above and below eye, and grayish to yellow legs and feet. The male bill is black, and the females has a bluish tinge, their iris is dark brown in males and dark gray-brown in females, and their feet and legs are yellow with dusky webs.

The Blue-winged Teal is found in shallow freshwater bodies that have an abundance of invertebrates. They consume a wide variety of aquatic insects, algae, aquatic plants, seeds, and on occasion grains from agricultural crops. Their nests are subject to very high levels of mammalian predation.

The male Blue-winged Teal is easy to identify. The females are easily confused with the Cinnamon Teal, Spatula cyanoptera (less patterned, warmer coloration with a plain face lacking a dark eye line and a longer bill) and the female Green-winged Teal, Anas crecca (small in stature, smaller bill, lacks blue patch on upper wing).

They are common in the north-central United States and prairie Canada. In Mexico the Blue-winged Teal is a winter visitor, with the males preceding the females, and found throughout the country with the exception of the northwest corner of Sonora at elevations below 2,200 m (7,200 feet).

From a conservation perspective the Blue-winged Teal is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are not heavily pursued by hunters. Their long-term survival is dependent upon the retention of their wetland breeding territories.