Blue-Winged Teal Duck

Anas discors

Distribution: Prairie provinces of Canada, the central and western U.S., Central America, Mexico, and in Peru and Brazil in S.A.

Habitat: Prairie potholes are a favorite place for a nest in southern Canada, and north central U.S. Nests are also concealed in tall grasses, in moist meadows, in dense cattail groughs along prairie sloughs. The nest is a well-built structure of dead grasses and a thick layer of down.

Physical Characteristics: Body is 14-16 inches, wingspread is 24-31 inches, weight is under 1 pound. Has a distinctive blue patch on each forewing.

Reproduction: Eggs are laid sometime between May and July. There are usually 9-11 eggs. The Female incubates the eggs for 23-27 days. The young can fly when they reach 35-44 days old.

 Diet: This teal is a dabbler. It skims the water with its bill or reaches down with its head and neck below the surface of the water in the shallows of small freshwater ponds, marshes, and grassy sloughs. 70% of the diet is plant foods like seeds of sedges, pondweeds, grasses; also it eats rice corn, mollusk (snails), aquatic insects and crustaceans.

Notes of interest: These teals are swift fliers who fly in small, compact flocks.